How to Deal with a Tsukishima Kei
by Rhea Ellace
Summary: It can't be helped that her subconscious avocation is reading people and psychologically slithering her way around them to keep her esteem in check. But when she crosses path with a tall blonde who is the combination of a sarcastic jerk, a disdainful asshole, an anti-social boy and a tightly-shut treasure chest, her curiosity is piqued. Tsukishima Kei becomes her biggest puzzle.
1. Chapter 1

Iruka Kihira was blessed with a gift.

For fifteen years, no one has ever acknowledged this gift of hers. No one paid much attention to the mediocre girl anyways. She was academically competent enough to be put into a college-prep class, but never the valedictorian. She had potential in almost any sports she tried, but never good enough to be put into a school team. She liked making friends, but never sociable enough to be the popular kid.

Iruka Kihira is ordinary. And she knows exactly why.

But she doesn't chase that extra length of effort to be better, to be the best. She could study a couple hours everyday until her brain fried if she wanted too. She could sign up for the basketball team or football team, show up for practice and work her butt off until the coach takes notice of her if she wanted to. She could approach people and start interacting with everyone and anyone she comes across if she could erase that sense of insecurity in her heart.

Instead, she chooses to be whatever she wants to be and do whatever she wants to do. As long as it is within her comfort zone.

Nonetheless, she had thought of doing something worthful before. In fact, she longed to be extraordinary (apparently to her, being good in something is extraordinary). But Iruka Kihira lacked passion and confidence. Every time she tries to get involved in something, vowing to herself she will turn her boring, uneventful life upside down, her insecurity kicks in and sends her hightailing out of the area faster than a bullet train. She tried everything. The school band, the track team, girl scouts, even taekwondo, for the sake of her friend, Akiyo. But she didn't like the hierarchical system in the school band, or the egoistic track team coach who only focused on the school runners, or having to wake up during the godly hours of a morning to show up at the scouts' camp, or how ridiculous she looked like in the taekwondo outfit. As much as she cared about her image in school, and knowing that most of her middle school classmates probably sees her as one of the "inactive, antisocial" kind, it got to the point she just gave up altogether.

Ah, guess it can't be helped.

Kihira yawns once again, not bothering to cover her mouth. There was hardly anyone left in the classroom besides a few classmates. She slaps her hand over her backpack strap and heaves it over her shoulders. Hana walks by her table. "Going home now?"

Kihira picks up her textbooks. "Yeah. You?"

"I've got Art Club." Hana replies, adjusting the strap of her bag. "You should join the art club you know, since you're good in art."

Kihira inwardly sighs. "Well yeah, but I can't paint."

"We don't just paint. We do pencil work too." Hana flashes her an encouraging smile. Hana tops Kihira's list of Extraordinarily Nice People. She was the epitome of an angel - sweet, kind, helpful and extremely considerate. As considerate as Kihira would label her to be, it would help if Hana could lay off her this once.

"Well..." Kihira drifts, trying to find the right words in order to not hurt the fragile girl's feelings. "Maybe. I just think that being in a club for art would just constrict my style."

Hana places a hand on her shoulder, flashing her another one of her signature sunny smiles. "I understand. I feel that way sometimes, but it keeps you inspired." she puts her hand down. "Well, I better get going. See ya!"

Kihira waves as Hana hurries out of the class. Sighing again, she drags herself out of the classroom. It's been two weeks since she started high school in Karasuno and she hasn't found a club for herself. Her middle school life was a complete waste of three years, she concluded. But no matter how demotivated she was, she wouldn't pass up the chance of starting life anew. She was still willing to give herself another chance to turn her teenage school life into something worth remembering.

But now she has to find a club to nestle herself in.

She exits the school. Since her house is just a few blocks away, her parents decided that she will walk to and fro everyday until they find a transport for her (which is never). Kihira never likes walking home alone. Walking home alone is one of the moments her paranoia acts up and her peculiar mind starts playing mind games on her. It's extremely mind-boggling to have thoughts nagging in her mind about things that don't even happen.

_Perhaps the dark alley you walk by so often lurks the most dangerous rapists. Perhaps that man cycling past you and making eye contact with you is thinking of touching you. Perhaps walking right behind you right now is a big grubby man, waiting to pounce on you, drug you and drag you into a car nearby._

Kihira spins her head around instantly.

Damn, she was paranoid.

But Kihira is a realist. There's a possibility that those incidents could happen. She can only be mentally ready if it happens. _Stay calm, and just kick the guy's nuts right?_ That was what Akiyo told her.

Of course. It was Akiyo after all. Kihira probably can't do it.

It's difficult being a teenage girl.

At this point she was nearing her neighbourhood. She turns the corner and hears a chattering noise. She spots two figures up front, a blonde and a brunette. The brunette seemed excited, walking with little hops in his steps whilst the tall blonde merely walked in a composed manner, seemingly unperturbed by his friend's enthusiasm.

Kihira looks at the ground and slows her walking pace. She doesn't want to startle the duo. It's nice to know that there are schoolmates taking the same route home as her, even though she hasn't seen them walk this route before. It gives her the sense of security.

Now that most of her worries have been cleared, she just has one last thing to agonise about.

She sighs again, this time heavier.

* * *

><p>"Kihira!"<p>

Akiyo slams her hands on her table, jolting the brown-haired girl from her train of thoughts. Narrowing her eyes at her rambunctious friend, Kihira sits up straight. It is seven in the morning, and Kihira is not the most pleasant person during these early hours. "God damn it, Akiyo, can you be a bit more unstartling?"

Akiyo still has the silly grin on her face. "Can you accompany me to the gym?"

"Gym?" Kihira rubs her eyes. "Why on earth?"

"J...Just don't ask!" Akiyo was already tugging at her sleeve. Kihira looks at her. Her friend is spluttering, avoiding eye contact, and trying very hard to hide a wide grin. This could only mean one thing.

"Another crush of yours?" Kihira groans, but got off her seat anyways.

"I didn't say crush!" Akiyo splutters.

"But it is, isn't it?"

"J...Just come!" Akiyo pulls her out of the classroom and down the hallway. Whoever this guy is, Kihira can only guess this will last for three months. She wouldn't tell her friend up front, but Akiyo never had it well with boys. She was too feisty and loud around them, around anyone and everyone in fact. None of them ever reciprocates, be it during elementary school, middle school or possibly high school. The boys Akiyo chose to fall for just never had mutual interest.

Soon after, they reach main doors of a gym. Sounds of shoes squeaking against floors and balls bouncing off surfaces were heard. Akiyo didn't stop running, pulling Kihira into the gym and up the stairs leading to the stands. Kihira eyes the group of boys in the room. _Volleyball?_

When they reach the stands, they lean their hands onto the balustrade, peering over the squabbling boys below. Kihira glances at Akiyo sideways, watching a wide grin crawling up her friend's face. "Okay, so who is it this time?" Kihira is not amused, having to be dragged everywhere while she was half awake. Her eyes scan the boys, looking for one who could be Akiyo's potential crush.

"Guess." Akiyo says, still grinning ear to ear. "One hint, one guess. A tall one."

Kihira's eyes dart around the court. A tall one. It is difficult to make out their height from where she is standing. Definitely not the ginger head screaming at another raven-haired. The ashen-haired at the sides? The baldy? No, definitely not. A tall one...a tall one...

Her eyes lands on the opposite side of the court, at a particular spectacled blonde. He has just jumped and blocked a spike by the orange-haired boy. He smirked and said something about the boy's height before earning glares of daggers. The shorter boy held up his fists, shouting something along the lines of "You wanna go" while his teammates holds him back.

Kihira raises a brow at this. "Is it Tsukishima Kei?"

"Wha?" Akiyo is puzzled. "No no, it's Kageyama Tobio." She points to the raven-haired boy from before, who was now yelling at the ginger head about something incomprehensible to Kihira's ears.

"You said a tall one."

"He IS tall! He's about a hundred and eighty centimetres!"

"Well, he's not the tallest one on court."

"I didn't say he is the tallest." Akiyo says. "He is really popular in the volleyball community. He's nicknamed the King of the Court and it's so co-"

"And what exactly is so attractive about this...Kageyama guy?" Kihira asks while watching him toss a ball.

"He's cool, and really composed!"

That she could agree. Partially. Kihira watches as the ball flies over to the orange-haired's direction. He jumps, getting ready to slam the ball over the net. But the ball's speed is far too much for him to handle as he slaps air, groaning when he lands. The ball bounces off the floor and rolls off into a corner. Kageyama Tobio was now haranguing the poor ginger head for being an air head.

She chuckles. "Still think he's cool and composed?"

"He's cute when he's mad!"

She rolls her eyes. She looks to Akiyo and decides to be blunt. "Akiyo, I don't think Kageyama Tobio here even notices your existence."

"I knoowww." Akiyo pouts, head sinking low to the level of the balustrade. "But it doesn't hurt to fantasize once in a while, does it?"

Kihira's eye twitches at the word 'fantasize'. When it comes to Akiyo, she knew exactly what fantasizing means to her friend. Her mind was now circulating around the fact that Akiyo's mind is bombarded with images of herself doing unspeakable things to Kageyama Tobio...

_Eww._

"Watch out!"

Kihira snaps from her stance. The next thing she sees is a flurry of red, white and green spiralling towards her face at the speed of light. Akiyo yelps. Before it could hit her, Kihira clasps her hands around the ball, completely stopping the momentum and movement of the ball. Next comes a burning sensation on her palms. Gasps were heard from below. All eyes are suddenly on her.

The gym fell dead silent.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" The ginger head hollers at them while bowing profusely. Kihira blinks and lowers the ball onto the baluster.

"Hinata!"

"You idiot! You could've killed her!"

"I'm sorry, Tanaka-senpai!"

"You dumbass! Watch the ball closely!"

Kihira waited until the commotion died down before giving Hinata a reassuring smile. "It's okay! We're fine!" She tosses the ball back down, directly into the hands of Kageyama Tobio. Before tearing her eyes from the court, she scans the opposite side of the court to make out who served and locks gaze with a very tall blonde.

He shifts his gaze away first and averts his focus on the game. She inwardly raises a brow. If there was one thing she learnt from reading strangers, it would be to never break eye contact first. It gives off a shady and dishonest impression.

At this point, she realises that Akiyo has been glaring at her intensely. "What?"

Akiyo sighs. "Never mind. You okay?"

"Yeah."

Akiyo places her hands on the railing. "You know that guy?" she points at the tall blonde. "Tsu...tsu..."

"Tsukishima Kei?" Kihira asks, watching him as he blocks yet another one of the ginger head's spikes. He then proceeds to comment on the ginger's height before guffawing, completely oblivious to the shorter boy's exasperation. "He's my neighbour."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Greetings fellow fanfictioneers! I was looking around and found no TsukishimaxOC on the site. Poor Tsukki, no one loves him?****So I just decided to write one and that's how this happened.**

**Before we advance, I would like to state that this is an extremely slow progressing story so please bear with me. If it doesn't hamper you, a review is very much appreciated! Reviews appease the feeling that I'm talking to a wall.**

**Disclaimer****: These adorable volleyboys do not belong to me. They belong to Furudate Haruichi, unfortunately.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I like my chapters long. I'M SORRY.**

* * *

><p>The recess bell rings.<p>

Kihira yawns and stretches herself lazily, feeling every inch of her muscle lengthens. She exhales, regaining her original composure as she smacks her lips. Few weeks have passed and she still hasn't found a club that fancied her. At this rate she can give up on making her school years "enjoyable and memorable", as she put it when she vowed to herself at the beginning of the school year. Perhaps she will give Art Club a try, but she doubts her participation will last longer than a few weeks. She has seen the Art Club, and there is nothing particularly interesting about sitting around in a class and doodle away in silence. She wants to join a club that makes her energetic and happy, a club that makes her look forward to going to the next day, and every other day.

No club have been able to do that to her.

She sighs.

"My, you have been sighing a lot lately, haven't you?"

Kihira looks up at Hana's slightly concerned, otherwise delighted face. She seldom sighs after all.

"Still thinking about the club issue?"

Kihira nods. "I'm deciding between softball and dodgeball. Help me choose."

Hana chuckles and sits on her desk. "Take your time. Don't join a club you're going to quit later on."

"I know...it's just that my mom gets pissy if she finds out I'm being a lazy ass. She's going to know. I'll be coming home right after school ends every day and she will know I'm not doing any extracurricular activities. Plus, I don't want to walk home alone." Kihira says it all in one breath and rubs her temple. Hardly anyone walks home right after school hours anymore, not even Tsukishima Kei and the brunette (whose name Kihira later learns is Yamaguchi Tadashi). They probably have volleyball practices every day. With them gone, her sense of security vanishes along. If she stays back in school often enough, she would be able to walk home with other schoolmates or hitch a ride home with Akiyo.

"I don't want to be clubless, but nothing here really catches my interest. Not even Art Club." She pauses. "Sorry."

Hana just laughs. "That's okay. You're looking for a more... intense club, is that it?" She places a finger to her chin. "How about being a manager?"

Kihira looks at her. "What? Why?"

"I don't know...since you're good at managing people."

"Since when was I good at managing people?" Kihira questions. "I'm a wreck around people."

"It's not that." Hana says. "Look, I don't know how to word this, but since middle school I see the way you deal with people, and helping me deal with my people problems. Remember the Hiteki conflict? You saved me big time on that one."

"Huh." Kihira merely says. "I just went with the flow on that one."

"See? Maybe you are a people-person."

Kihira scoffs inwardly, but doesn't argue with Hana. "Well, whatever you say. But a manager?"

Hana nods. "Yeah, why not? Find the rowdiest sports team we have here and sign up for the manager spot and _voila_! Not only have you landed yourself a club but also a medium to practise your skills!"

Kihira still isn't enthusiastic about the suggestion, but says half-heartedly, "I'll consider."

Hana smiles and grabs her by the wrist. "Alright, come on! I'm starving, let's go eat!"

* * *

><p>It was a typical Wednesday morning.<p>

The cafeteria was buzzing about with high school students wiping food clean off the food counter like a swarm of lotus. Akiyo was babbling about a book she just finished, Hana was listening intently while chuckling once in a while at her friend's antics, and Kihira was staring far off, observing two crows eyeing a piece of cracker someone abandoned on the cafeteria table. Everything was normal in Karasuno High School.

Walking out of the cafeteria and into the school building, Kihira and Hana listen to Akiyo's description of one of her taekwondo opponents.

"...and then her face kinda puckered up at me which makes her look so childish and I couldn't help but laughed so hard. Everyone thought I was crazy." Akiyo rambles on. "But it was the best day ever!"

"You do realise that making enemies with a second-year is going to do you no good, don't you?" Kihira comments.

"Yeah, but I ain't afraid of hell!" Akiyo says loudly, attracting the attention of a few students walking along the hallway nearby. "She's just a big baby."

Hana laughs weakily. "Yeah, but Kihira is right. You're going to cause troubles in the future. She will be a third-year next year."

"Ahh, who gives a damn. I want to see that face of hers again!"

"Akiyo, profa-"

A student suddenly dashes past Hana, knocking her roughly on the shoulder. The person turns around and hastily apologises before rushing into an open door leading to a flight of stairs.

"Hey, watch it!" Akiyo calls out, but the boy was already gone. Before she could yell further, Kihira pulls her away from the middle of the hallway, allowing a few teachers who were following him in tow rush past bedazzled students. They swing open the door to the stairs that leads to the roof.

"What's going on?" Akiyo asks no one in particular. "Let's go see!"

"Wai-" Kihira couldn't even finish the word as Akiyo pulls both her and Hana heads straight towards the stairs. She wasn't one to pry into people's business, but with the three of them running up the stairs, backing away now was too late. She wonders since when did Akiyo get so nosy.

When they swing open the door to the rooftop, several students and teachers were already there. At the edge of the roof stands a girl, back facing them. It took a few seconds for the girls to register what was going on. Akiyo's eyes widen a little. Kihira remains silent. Hana presses a hand over her mouth, releasing a gasp. The only person who managed to get the closest to the girl is Mikoto-sensei, a counselling teacher standing about four metres away from her.

"Aya, I understand what you're feeling now, but it's not worth taking your life over-"

"No. You don't understand. No one understands." The girl says between gritted teeth. "Leave me alone."

"Aya, please. If you can just step down, just one step down the ledge, we'll sort this out, alright? Tell me, what happened?"

"Just go away. I don't need your help. I don't need anyone's help. Leave me be!"

"Aya, please." the teacher begs, worried tears starting to well up in her eyes. "Come down and we'll sort it out..."

They continue to watch them. A male teacher turns to them and makes arm gestures. "All of you go down. You're making matters worse here-"

"Just leave me alone all of you!" the girl suddenly screams, tearing her voice box. Everyone freezes. "Or I'll jump!"

At that point it instantly feels like the whole school is in silence. No one says a word, not even the teachers. Everyone is silent. They are stunned, so stunned that it took a few long seconds before the male teacher turns to them and says quietly, "Hear that? Come on, hurry along."

Kihira glances at the back of the girl. She is trembling. She is enduring so much pain. She is wallowing in so much misery. She is on the brink of breaking down.

But this girl won't jump.

Kihira knows that.

Taking a deep breath, she trudges towards the counselling teacher, ignoring the male teacher's shouts at her. Approaching the counselling teacher, Kihira touches her hand. The teacher whips her head around to look at Kihira.

"Sensei, what happened to her?"

The teacher didn't dismiss her. "I don't know. She wouldn't tell me."

Kihira takes one last look at the girl who hasn't shown her face. Should she do this? She feels like doing it. She feels like she needs to get her point across this girl somewhat. She wants to do it, though this is something she has never done before. What if she fails? No, she won't fail. She should do it, shouldn't she? But this wouldn't be like her. She never does these things. These things are outside her comfort zone.

But she wants to do it.

There is no turning back. "Sensei, if you don't mind, I'll talk to her, but everyone else needs to go down."

There is a faint sign of hesitance in the teacher's eyes, so Kihira locks eyes with her. _Eye contact shows confidence_. She needs the teacher to have it in her.

The teacher nods and steps away from where she stood, gesturing to the small crowd to vacate the roof. Kihira takes a deep breath. She's doing it. She slowly walks around the girl, still maintaining the four metre gap between them. To coax the girl, she needs something to read - her facial expression, her body language, her eyes...anything. When she managed to get a look of her face, she notes that it was passively plain. Emotionless, but hurting somewhat.

Kihira takes a step closer.

"Don't!" the girl suddenly shouts, startling Kihira. "...come closer. I'll jump!"

Kihira halts in her steps. "You're Aya, right?" she makes her voice loud and clear. And firm.

The girl says nothing. Kihira continues, "Look, I know you won't jump."

The girl shoots her a look that threatens her instant death, but this is good news for Kihira. She is looking at her. There's some interaction here. "You don't know what I can do."

"Sure I don't." Kihira says. "But you won't jump."

"Don't challenge me!"

"How about I challenge you now? I dare you to jump."

Aya is taken aback from her words, feeling shock and challenged. People hate being challenged, and this girl is no exception. She looks down below her, but quickly shuts her eyes after. She shakes a little in her stance, but otherwise doesn't move. She bites her lips, body trembling.

She lost.

"You don't want to jump. You don't want to die. Not yet." Kihira says, taking a tiny, insignificant step closer. "If you wanted to die so bad, you wouldn't still be here"

_Another step._

"You know nothing about me. You can't help me." her voice starts to sound nasal. "You don't understand me. You don't understand how I feel. You don't-"

"No one needs to understand you." Kihira cuts before she could say anything further. "No one needs to understand you in order to love you, or befriend you, or for you to survive. It's just how it is! You don't need someone who relates to you to help you!"

Tears starts streaming down Aya's face. _Good. She's feeling something._

_Another step._

Kihira swallows her voice a little. "Look Aya, whatever this problem you have, years from now none of this will matter."

_Another step._

"You're feeling a lot of pain right now, and you just want to end it all." _Don't use the word 'but'_ . "You don't want to die like this. The fact that you are still standing here, on this ledge, shows that there is still some hope in you." _Now tackle her mind set_. "You think no one cares about you. You think no one loves you. Just open your eyes and you'll see it."

She pauses. _Now give her a situation._ "If you jump off this ledge, everyone here will be so damn confused for the rest of their lives, wondering what went wrong and why."

Aya starts to sniff. _Another step_. At this point she was a metre from the girl, close enough for Kihira to catch her in case she slips or her words backfires. But she doesn't want to get too close to avoid startling the girl.

"If you jump off this roof, your only shot of getting a second chance in life will be gone. Eternally." Careful not to look down, Kihira slowly sits on the ledge beside Aya, feeling a bit anxious. "It gets better. Life gets better. Only if you are willing to believe it. Your life won't turn into sunshine and rainbows without effort from yourself."

The last few sentences, she doesn't quite know why, but she decides to throw in at the last second. "If your life is empty, do something. Create something. Nothing changes because nothing changes."

From here on out, she keeps quiet, eyes studying the girl. Silently, she holds out a hand, and gives her a smile. A genuine smile. _It gets better._

Aya looks at her hand and sniffs.

She takes it.

Well that was surprisingly short.

Kihira pulls her down to sit on the ledge beside her, rubbing her back with her hands in circular motions. This gesture makes Aya bury her face into her hands, and cry. _Let it all out._

They sat there for what seemed like thirty minutes before Aya calmed. Kihira still remains silent. _Don't speak. Listen._

"It hurts so bad."

_Listen._

"I'm so lost...I don't know what to do."

_Listen._

"What do I do now?"

Kihira opens her mouth, but closes it. She pats her back first. "First, you will get professional help."

Aya exhales, and calms. Kihira looks at the counselling teacher standing nearby, nodding to her. Helping Aya to her feet, she hands her over to the teacher and feels a burden being lifted off her shoulders. After all that she still doesn't know what her conflict is.

Her job here is done. But oh god, she never wants to deal with something like this again.

Iruka Kihira was blessed with a gift.

But this gift, is not the potential of being able to be the valedictorian of the class, or the potential of being a skilled sports player, or the potential of being the person everyone likes to hang out with, day in or day out.

Iruka Kihira was blessed with a gift.

The gift of being able to play around people's minds, be it for pure purposes or dark ones.

* * *

><p>The bell rings.<p>

Students hastily say their thanks to the teacher and hurry out of the classroom like a swarm of bees. Some of them take their time, putting books into their bags item by item, second by second. They make a little chatter with their friends before pulling their bags off the desks and exit the classroom. Others sit around a little longer, thinking back on the long school day they just had or agonise on the recent event that occurred.

Kihira is one of those people.

She groans and smacks her head into the table. News got around the school fast, and under an hour, everyone knew about the suicidal second-year Morita Aya. It is only a matter of time before the whole school finds out about the first-year who helped persuade her out of it (in fact, almost her entire class knew, thanks to someone's big mouth). Now she regrets doing it. Why did she do it?

Coaxing a person out of a suicidal action is no big deal. With or without Kihira, anyone could've done it. But coaxing someone out of suicidal thoughts, however, was different. Kihira took note of this when she was speaking to Aya. But of course, the words chosen to use against Aya all varied around how Aya was. Was she mad? Sad? Depressed? Emotionless? More sad than angry? More depressed than sad? The same words Kihira used wouldn't worked against someone else. But no matter what words were used, Aya would not jump.

But whether she would think of jumping again, that depended on Kihira's words.

She groans again, muttering under her breath. "What the hell was I thinking..."

"Kira?"

Kihira looks up from the desk to see Akiyo hovering over her. The girl seems worried. "You okay?"

Kihira sighs. "Just tired. Who knows how many people know about this already."

"That's good! You'll be famous!"

"I don't want to be famous..." Kihira groans once again, into her desk. "What the hell was I thinking, playing hero like that. I'll never live this down."

"But you saved someone."

"She would have been saved with or without me."

"Heey, come on. Don't put yourself down like that." Akiyo says, rubbing Kihira's head. "But you know, you scared the shit out of the teacher when you dared her to jump. Yeah, what the hell were you thinking? What if she jumped? She could have _died_."

"But she didn't jump, right?" Kihira looks at her. "So all is fine."

"Still!" Akiyo wails. "What made you think she wouldn't jump?"

There was no solid reason to that. Kihira just knew that most people who try to kill themselves ends up backing away. They fear death. They are not ready. Jumping is one of the scariest way to go, and you had to have a lot of guts and misery in order to do that. Although she didn't know what Aya was going through, the instance she said "Or I'll jump", Kihira just knew this girl wasn't ready to go.

"I felt it in my guts."

"Jesus, Kira. One does not just simply_ feels_ something in their guts." Akiyo says. "Maybe Hana is right. Maybe you are a people-person."

Kihira rests her chin on the heel of her palm. Maybe, but she's not convinced yet.

"Anyways, " Akiyo adjusts her backpack strap. "Can you accompany me to the gym again, pleeeease?" She clasps her hands together in a begging fashion. "You won't just be able to watch hot guys tossing balls, but also get a free ride home! Sounds like a good idea, yeah?"

Kihira gives her a look but smiles. She stands up and grabs her backpack. "Alriiight. We can pay your boyfriend a visit then we'll go home."

"He's not my boyfriend! Not yet, at least."

"Geez Akiyo, don't be so full of yourself."

* * *

><p>When they reach the gym, only two third-years, the ginger and Kageyama Tobio was there.<p>

Akiyo stumbles in her step upon seeing him there, muttering sorry to no one in particular. Kihira shakes her head and pushes her friend towards the stairs.

"You guys are?"

They turn towards the voice, their eyes landing on a third-year brunette. He's rather tall, but not as tall as Kageyama Tobio. Judging from the way he talks and the vibe radiating off him, Kihira guesses he is the volleyball team captain, otherwise vice. "We are just here to watch." Kihira replies as Akiyo stumbles over the steps. "Sorry if we are bothering you."

"No, not at all." he lightly chuckles. "Just wondering why we have been getting visitors lately."

_Lately?_ Kihira laments to herself. This is only her second time here. She looks up the stairs at Akiyo who's already standing at the railing, drooling at she-knows-who.

"...Oh." Kihira finally says. "Well...my friend is here...for personal reasons." She makes some gestures with her hand. "I'm just here to accompany her."

The captain raises a brow, then breaks into a knowing smile. "Okay. Just watch out for stray balls." he says and flashes her a smile before walking back to the benches.

Kihira gives a small smile. _What a nice guy._

When she reaches the stands, she positions herself next to Akiyo. She can't help but think of what the captain just said. "How many times have you come here?"

Akiyo tries to think of something to say other than the truth but caves. "...every day since the past few weeks."

"My god, Akiyo. You're turning into a psychotic stalker.''

"I can't help it..." Akiyo whines a little and reaches into her backpack for her water bottle. "Lay off me for once will ya?" She continues to dig around her backpack before stopping. "Oh shit."

"What happened?"

"I left my bottle in the class." Akiyo starts thrashing through her bag. "Yep."

Kihira places a hand on her shoulder. "I'll get it for you."

Akiyo's eyes sparkles. "Really?"

"Yeah. You can stay and watch your Kageyama Tobio." Kihira says. "I'm not the one who wants to be in the gym anyways."

Akiyo grins widely. "Thanks! I love you Kira!"

Kihira can't help but smiles, and feel a little weird about having a fellow female say the three words to her. Not that she was homophobic or didn't appreciate friendship, it just sounds odd to her ears. She makes a mental note to tell her friend that later. Skipping down the stairs, she jogs over to the door as quick as she can to reduce the possibility of balls flying to her face. With force, she swings open the door and lunges out, only to knock into a body of black. She looks up, and up, and up...

At Tsukishima Kei.

Kihira knew he was tall, but she didn't imagine him to be this tall. In fact, she doesn't remember ever looking up to someone this height. At that moment their gaze locks. His honey-brown eyes glances down at her, but this time he doesn't takes his eyes away.

_Interesting._

"Sorry!" Kihira hastily apologises and steps to the side, allowing Tsukishima and Yamaguchi to pass through. Tsukishima mutters an almost inaudible "tch" as he shoves past, but it was loud enough for her to hear it. That makes her eyes follow him, a brow raised at his back.

_What the hell is wrong with him?_

Kihira shakes off the thought quickly, and dashes to the classroom.

* * *

><p>Sauntering out of the classroom with Akiyo's bottle at grip, Kihira didn't think there will be anymore interruptions to this little trip to the classroom, but boy, how wrong she was.<p>

"Iruka Kihira!"

She snaps around to find a girl dashing towards her from the other end of the hallway. Kihira stands there and waits for her. By the time she approaches, she was already panting and wheezing, beads of perspiration forming at the side of her forehead. The girl has slightly ginger coloured hair, broad shoulders and a rather sinister look. Kihira sees her face around in school pretty often to be able to remember.

"Iruka Kihira, right?" she asks, hands on her knees. When she straightens up she stands about a few centimetres taller than Kihira. "The one who helped Morita Aya?"

Ahh, here it comes. "Yeah. Why?"

"Ah. I have been looking all over for you. Thought you went home." the girl tells her. "Mikoto-sensei - the counselling teacher wanted to see you. Do you have anything going on now? Can you see her now?"

Kihira opens her mouth momentarily, then closes it. She holds up Akiyo's bottle. "Not really, but I have to get this to my friend."

"If you can't see Mikoto-sensei today, it's fine." the girl wipes the sweat off her forehead with her shirt sleeve. "Recess tomorrow, if possible?"

Kihira thinks for a while. "Yeah, that's good."

"Great." she exhales heavily. Much to Kihira's surprise, she extends her right hand. "Nice to meet you, by the way. I'm Nara Ameyuri from class 1-4."

Kihira shakes her hand and smiles at Ameyuri. She makes sure that her grip is firm. "You already know, from class 1-5."

Ameyuri grins at her way of answering, exposing her abnormally sharp pair of K9 teeth. She waves. "Great, see you!"

As they both walk towards their own destination, Kihira couldn't help but feel a little giddy. She's making friends, that's good. She can already feel that this year is going to be a good school year.

* * *

><p>"One of us has an admirer."<p>

Sugawara catches the ball with both his hands and lifts his head to look at a girl standing at the railings. They seldom got any 'visitors' as Daichi calls it, so when a black-haired girl started showing up at the gym every day for the past few weeks, peering at them, they knew something was up.

"Maybe." Sugawara comments, tossing the ball to Tanaka. "Or she could be a volleyball enthusiast."

"I doubt so." Nishinoya says with a grin. "Let's make a bet! I bet she's here for Daichi-san."

"I bet on Daichi too!"

"I bet it's me!

"Tanaka, we all know that's not possible."

"I think it's Kageyama-kun." Sugawara suggests, looking at her again. "She's in your year, right?"

Tanaka bursts out into a fit of laughter. "Kageyama? Why would anyone like _Kageyama_?"

Kageyama glares at him.

Daichi sighs, and recalls what the other girl said to him. _Well...my friend is here...for personal reasons._ He looks up at the stands, but the girl from before was nowhere to be seen. Personal reason alright.

"Tsukishima! Yamaguchi! What do you guys think?" Nishinoya calls out to the duo.

Tsukishima stops bouncing his ball and shoots Nishinoya an irritated look. He is not the kind of person who bothers to pry into someone's life,_ especially_ a girl's love life. "I'm not interested."

"Eyy Tsukki." Tanaka hums, hands on his hips and eyes flaring with some snide comments in mind. "Too stingy to give up a few dollars?"

"I don't like wasting my money on trivial issues."

"Pfft! This is not trivial!"

"Tanaka, that's enough." Daichi orders, throwing a ball to him. He just wants to resume practice.

But Nishinoya didn't let up the subject just yet. "What about the other girl? Who do you think she likes?"

"There's another one?" Tanaka shoots up and looks at the stands. Feeling disappointed that there is still only one girl, he deflates. "I don't see another one."

"There WAS another one." Hinata confirms. "She was there like a few minutes ago but she disappeared. Long dark brown hair, doesn't wear stockings. The one I almost hit her face with a volleyball a few weeks ago. Right Kageyama?"

"Oh, that one?" Tanaka rubs his chin, starting to pick up some pieces. "I remember now. Maybe that one came to cheer for me!"

"I doubt she likes anyone." Sugawara interrupts before Nishinoya can pipe in. "Probably just here for the sake of her friend."

"Eyy that's boring..." Tanaka pouts. Then suddenly an idea hits him square in the head. "Hey Noya! How about we try her-"

"No monkey business, Tanaka." Daichi grabs him by the back of the collar and pushes him towards the centre of the court. "Get back to practice."

Soon the boys were back at hitting balls again. Yamaguchi, who has been listening to their conversation approaches Tsukishima, who has tuned out of their chattering halfway, thinking he wouldn't be interested. But he arches a brow at Yamaguchi and asks, "What's the talk?"

"They were talking about the girl who bumped into you."

"Her?" Tsukishima merely says before hitting a serve. Yamaguchi notes how his friend actually follows up to his answer.

"Yeah. Do you know her?"

Tsukishima wipes off the sweat forming on his nose with the back of his hand before picking up another volleyball. "We're neighbours."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: First off, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favourited or followed this story! Those simple gestures mean a lot to me! Getting emails saying "How To Deal with a Tsukishima Kei has gained a new follower..." really hypes me up. (Yes I still use email)**

**I have a major national exam in mid-October, so I probably won't be uploading anything in the first half of October. I have chapters 4 and 5 written already - they just need some polishing. I hope y'all can be patient with me. Sankyewberrymuch.**

* * *

><p>As scheduled, Kihira headed down to the counseling room during recess the next day. When she reached, the teacher was busy attending to another student, so she sat on one of the cushion chairs outside the office and waited.<p>

It has been ten minutes. She looks at the clock on the wall for the fourth time. She had promised Yachi that she will meet her at the cafeteria after her appointment, but it looks like she is going to be late. Although Yachi will understand, she still doesn't want to be tardy.

She waited for another three minutes before the door to the office opens. "Keep up the effort, okay?" she hears the teacher says to someone. She stands up and is met with the student who walks out of the office.

Well would you look at who it is.

Kageyama Tobio.

Kihira's face remains passive and she decides to avoid eye contact with this boy, looking straight into the office. She can feel him glance at her for a split second before walking past her and out of the room. Inwardly she smugs. At first she is surprised, then she figures that he might be here for a discussion on his academic performance rather than his behaviour problems. She remembers Akiyo jabbering about Kageyama being academically lousy, "but is a super genius on court".

Kihira steps into the office and closes the door. Mikoto-sensei sees her and smiles. "Kihira-san? Thanks for coming to see me. Have a seat."

She sits down on the chair across her and notes how comfortable and well she sinks into the chair. "Sure thing."

Mikoto-sensei got a stack of paper out of the way before starting. "First of all, I want to thank you for helping Aya out." Mikoto-sensei gently says. "I'm sure she's relieved that there's a friend who cares about her."

Kihira raises a brow, initially bewildered. "Oh, I'm not a friend."

"No? You don't know Aya?"

Kihira shakes her head.

"Oh." Mikoto-sensei says and ponders. "You seemed like a friend."

"I was just...babbling things." Kihira explains. "Whatever that would help a depressed person."

"Well, whatever it is, it worked alright." Mikoto-sensei leans her elbows onto her desk and intertwines her fingers. "Aya is depressed. She's got some friendship conflict and academic pressure. We informed her parents so she should be fine. She's going for psychiatric sessions."

"That's...good." Kihira doesn't know what to say.

Mikoto-sensei leans back into her chair. "Well, that's all actually. I just want to thank you on behalf of Aya." Just when she is about to let her off, she springs up. "Oh! Another thing. Do you have club activities?"

Kihira sinks a little, ashamed of what she is about to say. "Actually...I don't have a club."

"Ah, okay." Instead of reprimanding her for not being active, Mikoto-sensei brightens up. "Because I was thinking if you are interested in helping the counselling department out. You won't be counselling students of course, just staying back after school some days, sort out some students' files and whatnot. Ameyuri-san - I believe you have met her - is currently helping me."

"But aren't all students' files and discussion with the teachers confidential?"

"That's why I need someone trustworthy." Mikoto-sensei looks her in the eye. "I believe you are, Iruka-san. From the way you handled the situation yesterday, I'm sure you are."

Kihira blinks. She is anything _but_ trustworthy. As far as she can remember, she's not very good in keeping secrets, especially during elementary school years. She had very bad self-control skills. She acknowledged that and fixed the problem over the years but who knows what her stupid mouth will say in the future.

But the offer is interesting. _Staying back in school. Why not?_

"It sounds great." Kihira says. "I'm in."

"Good." Mikoto-sensei smiles and stands. "You'll start tomorrow. That's all. I'll let you off now."

Kihira bows and exits the room, feeling more content than ever.

* * *

><p>"So that one must be the captain."<p>

Akiyo spent the last few minutes figuring out who is who on the volleyball court. She points to random players and tries to relate them to positions she read on the internet the night before. She now knows that Kageyama Tobio plays the position "setter" and a boy named Hinata plays the middle blocker position (much to her surprise - the boy is short!), but can't seem to figure out which position the captain plays.

"Wing spiker." Kihira answers for her. "Baldy is also a wing spiker."

"Oooh." Akiyo says in amusement. "What about the short guy?"

"Libero. They specialise in receives." Kihira says as the libero dives to receive one of Kageyama's serve. The 'baldy', whose name Kihira learnt during their practices is Tanaka, gives the libero a thumbs up and a "nice save, Noya!". 'Noya' probably isn't his full surname because she heard a different name few days before.

"Ahh, I need to read up more." Akiyo pinches the bridge of her nose. "Though I'm not surprised that the tall neighbour of yours is the middle blocker."

"With his height he's probably meant to play that position." Kihira says and watches Tsukishima blocks a spike from Tanaka alongside Kageyama. "Have you ever stood next to him? He's so freakishly tall."

"Are you close to him?" Akiyo spontaneously asks. "You know, considering that you're neighbours."

"No. I've never spoken to him." Kihira says, leaning her chin against the top of the balustrade. Her only verbal (and physical) encounter with him was that one time she bumped into him at the entrance of the gym. Since her family moved into the neighbourhood a year ago, the ladies from both families got extremely and somewhat annoyingly close. Guess that can't be avoided when she has a super-sociable mom. Not just with Tsukishima's mother, but with the other lady neighbours as well. Sometimes in the evening, they would bring out plastic chairs and head over to the park, sit there and start chatting about whatever women would chat about. Help her, they even have an online chat group. On rare occasions, they had potluck dinner at each other's houses, adults from all four families huddling around to enjoy each other's company. Kihira and her siblings would just play video games with the younger neighbours after the meals, sometimes Tsukishima Akiteru would join in. But Tsukishima Kei never bothered to interact with anyone. Most times he just sat on the couch with his headphones on, completely ignoring his surroundings. Those headphones were with him just about wherever he went, and he wears it like a 'do not disturb' sign. There was a time Kihira caught Tsukishima's mother admonishing him for being unsociable during these functions, and he merely shrugs her words off.

Tsukishima's mother is an extremely nice woman.

Her youngest son, on the other hand, is not.

"I thought he was the quiet type."

"Quiet type?" Akiyo says, scoffing. "From what I've seen in the past few weeks, he's a total jerkface to Kageyama-kun. He calls him 'king' like it's some sort of insult. I don't get why Kageyama gets mad, though."

"That's what I thought, until I started coming here with you." Kihira stands up straight. His endless teases of his teammates, his laughter afterwards, his snickers at Noya's Rolling Thunder (though Kihira had to agree that it was ridiculous) and his blatant rudeness towards her even after she apologised for knocking into him. And yet he's so quiet during gatherings. Just what is this guy?

"So he never talks outside school?"

"Not with the neighbours." Kihira answers, then looks at Akiyo with a sceptical expression. "Why do you ask?"

"If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, no. I am not interested in Mr. Jerkface." Akiyo clarifies. She glances at her sideways. "I'm not the one who lives beside him."

Kihira narrows her eyes. "What do you think this is, the big boy next door scenario?"

Akiyo suddenly bursts into laughter. "BIG BOY NEXT DOOR?" She laughs harder and wipes a stray tear. "Oh my gosh...big boy next- I have to write this down."

"God damn it, Akiyo."

Akiyo was still laughing, and only managed to tune down after a minute. "Okay okay. Big-boy-next-door here gets on people's nerves a lot. I'm just surprised that you're not even his victim."

Kihira sneers. "Not his victim? Let me tell you what happened the other day..."

* * *

><p>"Iruka Kihira!"<p>

Kihira flinches at the volume. She turns and sees Nara Ameyuri approaching her right after she steps outside her own classroom. Her voice made heads turn. Seeing that there is nothing interesting about the duo, everyone proceeds to shuffle down the hallway, their bags in tow.

Kihira heaves a sigh of relief after all eyes are taken off her. Seriously, Nara didn't have to be so loud. Their classrooms were just beside each other. "Nara." She greets.

"Sorry about that." Ameyuri apologises. "I'm usually not this loud."

Kihira twinkles at Ameyuri's instant self-realization. She doesn't often meet people like her. "Nah it's okay. I just don't do very well with attention."

"Haha, really? You don't seem like that type. Oh, and just call me Ameyuri. Nara sounds weird to me, even after fifteen years."

"That's good." Kihira confesses. "I thought 'Nara' didn't sound right with you too."

Ameyuri grins. "You're honest. I like you."

Kihira smiles at her compliment and the both of them walks down the hallway, heading towards the counselling room. She forgot to mention that she doesn't do very well with compliments too, but it's not necessary to point out for now. Usually she doesn't get comfortable with people she just met, but with Ameyuri Kihira felt at ease, almost as if she has a soothing aura. It was only their second meet up and Kihira was already starting to like the girl. Ameyuri is the blunt and level-headed type just like her. It is good to be able to relate to another fellow female who doesn't fawn over boys and kiss their feet.

School just ended and it is her first day helping out in the counselling department. Ameyuri explains to her that Mikoto-sensei doesn't need them to be there every day, just on the days she needs help. It didn't change Kihira's schedule at all since she plans on staying longer hours in school every day (all just to avoid walking home alone again). Akiyo's taekwondo classes just started, and Kihira has been hitching a ride with her ever since. She knows that she can't keep going home using Akiyo's transport - her mom might get frustrated. Although Akiyo tells her that her mom doesn't care, Kihira knows that it's only a matter of time before it gets into her head. Akiyo's house isn't even anywhere near hers. She's going to have to start walking home sooner or later, if she can find someone to walk home with her.

Entering the counselling room, Ameyuri directs her into a small room within Mikoto-sensei's office, where thick cardboard files stacked up on tables can be seen. This is what they are going to do, it seems. Ameyuri notices Kihira's contemplating vibe and assures her. "This looks like a boring job, but trust me, looking into people's information can be fun."

Kihira looks at her. "Are you kidding? I love looking into people's private information."

Ameyuri laughs. "Great! Come on, let's get started."

Their job for the day was simple. Recently the counselling department got every student to do a psychometric test, measuring their skills in visual interpretation, numerical reasoning, language, emotional intelligence, social intelligence and analytical skills. The results for each student were out and printed. All they had to do was put the papers into the files of whoever it belonged to. It was repetitive, but fun, like how Ameyuri described it to be. They got to look at the results of their classmates and seniors, poking fun at the scores, either saying they didn't deserve it or it was so scarily accurate that they both laughed (Kihira knew it was mean, but hey, it was just the two of them in the room).

"Oh look," Ameyuri shows her a piece of paper in the midst of their work. "It's yours."

Kihira receives the paper and studies it carefully. Ameyuri looks over her shoulder and reads it with her. "Wow, that's some crazy scores. Analytical skills, nine out of ten."

"I got five for numerical reasoning." Kihira states as it's the lowest score. She frowns a little. "Oh well, I suck in math anyways."

"Who cares? Look at that." Ameyuri points to the 'Social Intelligence' and 'Visual interpretation' section. "That's a straight out ten out of ten. And the rest is either seven or eight."

_Ah shit. Compliments, compliments, compliments._ She slaps herself, though she would be lying if she says she is not one bit impressed with her performance. She will save the self-admiring thoughts for later. "What about you? Found yours?"

Ameyuri picks up a piece of paper that was significantly put aside on the table. "I got nine out of ten for numerical reasoning, everything else is either seven or eight. I got one five." She shrugs. "I guess I'm decent."

Kihira chuckles. "I think I am too."

"Crazy." Ameyuri comments. "You're way above decent."

Kihira ignores her statement and gives her the paper back to file. They continue to shuffle through the papers, going back and forth the same process. Other than a few names of her classmates and friends, nothing else really caught her eyes.

She finishes her stack of paper and moves to the table to take a new one. The name on the first paper catches her eyes briefly before she moves the stack. Gently, she picks up the paper to read the name properly.

_Tsukishima Kei._

Feeling her curiosity piqued, she scans through the results. And wow, this boy has got quite the scores too. He aced analytical skills, got eight for numerical reasoning, and seven for language. After slowly taking in all the numbers, she looks down to the one section with the lowest score. Social intelligence.

_Four._

She snickers.

"What's that?" Ameyuri asks upon hearing her. She walks towards Kihira and peers at the piece of paper she's holding. Noticing the name on the paper, she takes it out of her hand. "Tsukishima Kei?" She reads the results, and starts laughing. "Social intelligence, _four_!"

"Oi, not so loud!" Kihira warns, looking towards the door to ensure no one was listening on the other side, but starts laughing eventually. "You know him?"

"He's in my class!" Ameyuri says, her eyes not taking off his paper.

Kihira stops for a bit. "He talks?"

"Are you kidding? I sit diagonally front from him and he will remark just about anyone who crosses his path._ Anyone._" Ameyuri tones down. "Today I came to school late, got yelled at by my teacher, and had to copy my notes in a fury and he purposely - I swear to god - purposely knocked into my table when I was writing. Then he bends down and insults my penmanship!" Ameyuri complains. "_My _penmanship! He says I write like a chicken! What does he expect? I was in a hurry!"

Kihira couldn't control herself any longer and bursts out laughing. She kneels to the floor, and keeps guffawing at the ground even after her stomach was sending painful impulses throughout her entire body. She hasn't laughed like this in a while. It felt great.

"Ugggh! I hate him!" Ameyuri resists the urge to rip his paper apart. "Stupid good-for-nothing asshole!"

Kihira finally lays on her back, resting an arm over her eyes, trying to tone down her laughter. "Oh gosh...chicken...it gets me every time..."

Ameyuri slams his paper onto the table and looks over at Kihira. "Dammit Kihira, stop it already." She helps her to her feet before Kihira decides to lie down on the floor for the rest of the week. After Kihira has calmed down, Ameyuri asks, "You know him?"

"Tsukishima?" Kihira says, wiping a tear from her eyes. "He's my neighbour."

"YOUR NEIGH-" Ameyuri slaps her hand over her mouth in realisation of how loud she was. Kihira flinches and starts making wild hand gestures at her. A distorted look envelops her face as she looks at the door again, hoping that the other counselling teachers doesn't hear them.

"Not. So. Loud!"

"Your neighbour?" Ameyuri removes her hand and whispers very loudly. "How the hell do you live in peace?"

Kihira calms. "He doesn't actually talk."

Ameyuri straightens. "What? He's quiet outside school?"

"Yeah. He never talks during dinner gatherings."

Ameyuri raises a brow and taps her chin with her finger. "So he exerts most of his energy in school teasing people. Hmm."

"Maybe because adults are around." Kihira suggests. "But most of the time he's plugged to his headphones."

"Yeah, his headphones." Ameyuri says and rubs her temple. "I have a friend who, I think, might have a crush on him." She clenched her fists and looks towards the ceiling, as if appealing to the man in the sky. "Why, would anyone in the world have a crush on Tsukishima Kei?"

Kihira laughs. "Ameyuri, I think you are a little fond of him."

"Hell to the no." Ameyuri objects. "I would prefer Ebizu-sensei over him anytime."

Kihira laughs again, this time not as hard as the last but it was enough to send tickles to her stomach. It took a while for the words to really sink into her before she abruptly stops laughing. "Oh. _Ew._"

"I know." Ameyuri nods at her, completely getting what she means.

Kihira recomposes herself. "I would take Tsukishima over Ebizu-sensei anytime, _only_ because Ebizu-sensei is a whole four decades older than us and allegedly has a socks fetish."

Ameyuri laughs. "Sorry, I just can't imagine Tsukishima being a boyfriend." She pauses, then continues shortly after. "What the hell! How did we even get into this topic?"

Kihira chuckles, shaking her head. "But Ebizu-sensei? Seriously, Ameyuri? At least date someone our age."

"I would. Anyone but _Tsukishima Kei_." Ameyuri says his name in disgust. "Talk about someone who scored four for social intelligence."

Kihira laughs again, unable to continue her job for the next half an hour.

* * *

><p><em>Where is she?<em>

School just ended and Kihira is standing outside the gym, waiting for Akiyo to show her face. Her friend has some issues to take care of in Taekwondo Club and said she would only take a few minutes to get it done. But it has been thirty minutes since Kihira arrived there, and she was feeling more uncomfortable by every second as students shoot her curious looks. Kihira is not an impatient person. She just couldn't stand being looked at.

_Come on Akiyo...your Kageyama-kun is waiting for you._ She could already hear sports shoes squeaking against the court floors and hands slamming against volleyballs. She looks into the gym. The door was left open, so she sees everything and everyone inside. Kageyama and Hinata are the only ones there, constantly fighting and putting themselves on each other's nerves. A lot of collar-grabbing and head-whacking were involved along the sides. Kihira is starting to rethink what her impression is of Kageyama Tobio. Well yes, he has a cool guy vibe and a face that could make a few girls melt, but after weeks of seeing him in action on the same court as Hinata Shouyo, Kihira will laugh if another girl says she has a crush on Kageyama Tobio.

That's not just it. His temper flares up fairly quickly when Hinata couldn't spike any of his tosses. Surly guys are in her Guys to Not Date list, and she wonders if it is the same case for Akiyo. Hell, she wonders if Akiyo even notices his flaws. That girl can get over her head sometimes.

Tired of standing, she plops onto the steps and hugs her legs. _Come on Akiyo, don't leave me waiting any longer..._

"Kageyama, there's no need to-"

Kihira jolts out of her thoughts, hearing someone walking towards her. Her head swivels to find the owner of the voice. Standing at the door, Hinata Shouyo is pulling on Kageyama's shirt, trying in vain to get him back into the gym. Kageyama sees that Kihira notices them, and promptly steps out of the gym, not at all bothered by his friend's unfruitful effort. Kihira's mind starts racing. _What do they want?_

Kageyama starts. "Do you know how to play volleyball?"

Kihira recoils a little. "A bit. Why?"

He thumbs towards Hinata behind him. "Can you practise receives with him?"

Hinata snaps at him. "Why don't you practise with me?"

"Because I want to practise my jump serve, and you won't stop bothering me about practising our quicks!"

"Fine fine fine! I will practise receives myself!"

"Idiot! You can't practise receives with yourself!"

"Sure I can! I'll just use the wall!"

"Dumbass! You won't improve with a wall!"

"Sure I will! I've been doing it since middle school an-"

"Yeah, since middle school, and what? Are your receives good?"

Just before their bickering could lead on further, Kihira springs up and gets a hold of their attention. "Okay okay! That's enough, the both of you." The boys become silent. Kihira awkwardly clears her throat. "If you don't want to practise with me it's fine. Either way, I don't mind."

Hinata brightens up. "Really? But aren't you waiting for someone?"

Kihira looks around her. Still no sign of Akiyo. "Yes, but she won't be here anytime soon, I can spare a few minutes."

Hinata makes an 'oooh' sound before grabbing her wrist. "Okay! Let's start!" and pulls her straight into the gym. Kihira almost tripped when he yanked her. She wants to tell him that his grip is too tight, but decides against it when she sees how jovial and bubbly he is when it comes to volleyball. His face is bright like the sun. His worries and troubles were instantly wiped away, like the altercation between him and Kageyama Tobio before never happened. When they reached the center of the court, Kihira realises just how tall the net is. She looks up to the very top. _Hinata can jump that high?_

"Oh oh, and!" Hinata jumps in front of her. "I'm Hinata Shouyo! I want to become Karasuno's ace!"

Kihira still feels a little dumbstruck at this sudden invitation. "I'm Iruka Kihira."

"Oooh Kihira." Hinata laments. "Oh, and ace is the position where the player spikes the ball over the net the most times!"

"Yes...I know that."

Hinata calms down and gives her a big smile. "I'll go over there and I'll hit the ball to you, okay?" He runs towards the opposite direction and stops when he's about eight metres from her. He turns around and throws her another smile. "Ready? And...go!"

Kihira can't help but chuckles. This boy is such an oddball, but his mood really did quite a job affecting hers. Within minutes, she starts feeling extremely hyped and smiley. When she was just watching him from the stands she didn't quite grasp the mood influence, but now she was right in front of him and her vibe is completely reflecting his.

She returns the ball flawlessly. Hinata watches as the ball flies up and bounces off the top of his arm. The ball was falling in front of her, so Kihira moves forward and returns it. She feels happy and giddy by every second. Although it's just simple receives, she feels her adrenaline kicks in, mainly because she feels unusually comfortable and welcomed here.

"Ooohh!"

Hinata catches the ball with both his hands when he spots someone at the door. "Tanaka-senpai! Nishinoya-senpai!" He waves at them. Kihira turns around. A total of five boys walk in, two of them being said Tanaka and Nishinoya. Behind the duo were the captain, the vice-captain and a very tall third-year she hasn't seen before. It seems that the first thing they notice (or first person) is Kihira. Suddenly all eyes are on her, and it sends shivers down her spine.

Tanaka ignores all means and scurries over to her, leaning his face near hers, as if studying every detail of her face. She flinches away from him and starts to feel the sanctity of her mind fade away. _Calm down. You have seen how this one acts on court. You can handle him._

When he doesn't takes his face away, Kihira speaks up with a firm voice. "Can I help you?"

Tanaka pulls away and breaks into a grin. "You're one of the girls who came to watch us for the past few weeks!" He suddenly makes it a point to dramatically clap his hand together beside his cheek and makes a lovestruck look. "Ahh, no other girls have ever come to watch us play except for Kiyoko-sa-"

"Tanaka, you're scaring her." The vice-captain says from behind him, completely knocking him off his stance. He turns to Kihira and smiles. "Sorry about him. He's a little intense."

This one is super nice, she recalls. She smiles back at him. "It's okay, it was just a little sudden."

He chuckles, and briefly looks around. "Where is your friend?"

"She's got some issues to deal with. It's just me here for now." Kihira explains, noticing from her peripheral vision that a certain blonde and brunette are entering the gym. More boys are coming, oh god. Someone help her.

The vice-captain nods. "Well, I'm Sugawara Koushi, third-year. Nice to meet you."

"Iruka Kihira. First-year." She smiles and looks at the other team members without much scrutiny. "You have nice members."

"Oh really?" Sugawara looks around, and sees Kageyama berating Hinata on the other end of the court for disrupting his momentum. Daichi then steps in between them and holds them by their collar, sternly warning them about having their butts kicked out of the gym while Tsukishima and Yamaguchi snicker.

Kihira bites her lips. "Okay. Just some."

Sugawara softly laughs. "I get what you mean. They can be a little intense, but it's entertaining to have them around." He looks at the rest of his teammates who just started doing warm ups. "So you're here because...?"

Kihira points to Kageyama's direction. "He wanted me to help Hinata with his receives. I can leave now if I'm bothering yo-"

"No, it's fine!" he hastily assures her. "I'm sure our captain doesn't mind if you stay a little longer."

Initially Kihira thought the captain was a benign, gentle soul as well, until during their practices she realises that he could be scary too, and sometimes easily irked by tiny issues that erupted. He seems to only get pissed when something or someone stems their practice, and Kihira takes it that she is stemming their practice.

"We are only doing warm ups now anyways." Sugawara adds.

"Alright. I won't bother you then. Thank you." Sugawara needs to start warm ups soon, so she excuses herself from their conversation. Just as soon as she pivots on her heels, Hinata comes running with Kageyama in tow.

"Hey Kihira! Try something." Hinata says and gives her the volleyball. "Try spiking!"

Kihira looks at him blankly. "I don't know how to spike."

"You won't know till' you try!" Hinata puts on his happy face, wheedling her. Kihira glances down at the ball, then at her clothes.

"I'm wearing a skirt." Kihira says. The realisation sinks in and Hinata just emits an 'oh'. Both him and Kageyama turns unusually quiet_. Great._ Boys and their dirty teenage hormones. Who knows what thoughts are boggling their minds now.

Kihira sighs through her nose and bounces the ball. "I'll try, but I won't jump too high."

Hinata grins and turns to his partner. "Kageyama! Toss for Iruka-san!"

Kageyama wanted to scoff, but didn't have a valid reason to not toss for Kihira, so he agrees in resignation. "What kind of toss do you want?"

Kihira cocks her head to the side. "I don't think I get it."

Just when Kageyama could go into a lengthy explanation on the type of tosses he can handle and the thought of 'why did I even agree to this', Kihira snaps up. "Oh! You mean the position of the toss?" She pauses, grateful that she doesn't have to see Kageyama's frustrated expression, or feel it. She has seen him toss more than a dozen times, as if Akiyo's feminine yelps weren't already enough to 'alert' her of his actions. His tosses were flawlessly executed and frighteningly accurate, throwing even his own teammates off. He worked well with just about anyone if it wasn't for his deriving nature. He sure does live up to his nickname. "As close as you can to the net and just a bit higher. I'll try."

Kageyama doesn't say anything, so she throws him the ball to alleviate the silence before it gets awkward. She takes a deep breath, preparing herself for the worst. If she falls, it will be a big blow to her image. If she hits, how damn happy she would be. She is in a room full of boys, and she sure as hell would try to impress a few of them. Seeing Kageyama toss the ball into the air, she starts running, like how Hinata does during practice. Run. Bend. Jump. Hit.

_Wham._

She jumped just tall enough for her hand to show above the net and hit the ball which Kageyama tossed at the exact spot, sending the ball shooting straight into the ground on the other side of the court. The sound it makes when it hits the ground didn't sound as loud or as satisfying as the sound produced by Hinata's spikes, nonetheless she hit. It isn't extraordinary, but that is all that matters.

She looks at the redness on her hand.

It felt good.

"Whoaahh!" Nishinoya and Tanaka cheer a little too loud from the benches, making Kihira think if they were just rubbing honey on her face. Her spike was weak, sloppy even. She almost lost the heft of the ball - the toss was too quick even though Kageyama sped it down for her. It wasn't anywhere near a real spiker's hits, and these boys have obviously seen thousands of better spikes before. They are impressed alright, only because she is a girl who doesn't play volleyball on a regular basis.

The other boys didn't have as impressed of an expression. The captain watched with a slightly arched brow, the third year and Yamaguchi Tadashi had their eyes widen a little while Sugawara mouthed 'wow'. Nevertheless, Tsukishima Kei remains an unimpressed look, as if he expected more.

Why did she agree to this.

"That's awesome!" Hinata shouts, running over to her. "You were like 'gwaa' then 'whoosh' then 'bam'!"

Kihira looks at him and smiles, but all she could think of was whether her skirt flew up too high up as she landed. She is never doing this again. It was too worrisome.

"Heey! Try that again!" Tanaka says with his hands cupped around his mouth."...but with a blocker!"

Kihira shakes her head. "No I don't want to-"

"Tsukki!" Nishinoya calls out to the tall blonde who just finished warming up. "Go block for her!"

Tsukishima narrows his eyes from where he sits. "Why do I have to?"

"Because you are a middle blocker, aren't you?"

"Well, I don't want to." Tsukishima bluntly says. "Get shrimpy to block. He's shorter. She has a better chance of scoring."

"Hey!" Hinata shouts.

"But Tsukki," Tanaka coos. "Don't you have to practise blocking? You couldn't block a lot of Aobajouhsai's spikes, couldn't ya?" He stops for a while. "Or are you just shy around girls? Ooh! I think I found Tsukishima's weakness!"

Tsukishima furrows his brows. "I'm not."

"Then?" Nishinoya prompts. "Why won't you block for Iruka-san here?"

Tsukishima was seething with frustration, but starts moving towards the court. Looks like Tanaka and Nishinoya shot a nail and Tsukishima stepped right on it. Clever. They worked around their words and pinpointed Tsukishima's weak point. The both of them must really have an animosity towards the blonde to bother going through such lengths ticking him off.

With just a few steps and he was already in the centre of the court. He is not pleased. She avoids any eye contact with him. As much as she wanted to turn tail and bolt out of the gym, Tsukishima was already standing on the opposite side of the net and Kageyama was already holding the ball. Taking a deep breath, she steps further from the net. Forget about her skirt. Since she is here, might as well do her best. She has to jump higher and slam the ball harder this time especially with a middle blocker now.

Kageyama tosses the ball. She follows through, running as quick as she can to keep up with the speed of the ball. Tsukishima's hands are held in front of him. She exerts maximum power. She bends. She leaps. She swings.

_Wham._

The sound was beautiful, but what came after wasn't.

Instead of ricocheting off Tsukishima's arms like expected, it ricocheted off his_ face_. He growls at the impact when he lands, covering his face with his hands from everyone's sight. Everyone gasp. Yamaguchi and Nishinoya run over and assess him. Daichi freezes. Hinata winces. Tanaka yelps. Sugawara flinches.

Kihira's heart stops.

She didn't look where she was aiming.

"Oh crap- I'm sorry!" She panics. For the first time, she feels genuinely afraid for hitting someone, especially someone with glasses. She hopes with all her strength that his spectacles didn't shatter into smithereens and enter his eyes. It's hard to tell as he was still shielding his face. What if he becomes blind? What if his face swells? What if she broke his cheekbones? Or nose? Or face altogether?

Tsukishima removes his glasses and presses the back of his arm to his eyes, hunching downwards. His glasses didn't break, but it doesn't make her feel any better. Is he crying? Feeling sucked into a warp of guilt, she ducks under the net and approaches him. Her hands hover over his shoulders, wanting to touch him to display a feel of regret and comfort, but they don't land. She ends up standing in front of him, hands placed awkwardly in midair, spewing out lines after lines of apologies. "I'm really sorry! Are you okay? Tsukishima?"

When he still doesn't respond, she looks up at Sugawara. "We need to get him to the infirmary." Sugawara nods and offers to take him there with Yamaguchi's company. As they direct and push him towards the exit, Kihira feels a lump at the pit of her stomach. It should be her who shoulders the responsibility and take him there, but then again he probably doesn't want to see her for as long as he lives.

_Crap._

Tsukishima Kei hates her.


	4. Chapter 4

She hasn't seen Tsukishima since then.

It doesn't agonize her to the extent she would knock on his door or track him down in hallways, but her mind still wasn't at ease knowing she slammed the face of Tsukishima Kei. She's not entirely concerned for his physical condition, but more for the possibility of him giving her searing wordless responses if they were to interact in the future. If it was anyone else she wouldn't be worried, but Tsukishima Kei? The stone-cold attitude of the blonde teen anguishes her a little. He had said curt things to Yamaguchi even when all he uttered was 'Let's eat, Tsukki!'. So besides being on her No-no list, males with icy temper also occupy a space on her Avoid Offending list.

Making people mad is one of her biggest fears.

It's odd she never sees him in school, be it the hallways, the cafeteria or his classroom after school ends. That guy is so godly tall, how could she miss him? She knows that he leaves for school much earlier than she does - after all, he does looks like the kind of person who wakes up the second they smell sunbeam. Anyone who can show up for volleyball practices at dawn is considered a morning person in her book. She on the contrary, is a nocturnal animal.

Kihira has contradictions, however. She wants to relieve herself of the qualms as soon as she can, yet avoids going anywhere he may step foot in. Akiyo didn't question her reason for not wanting to go to the gym the past two days, but went on babbling about how Kihira didn't appreciate the anatomical structure of the male body and the exceeded limit of testerones. Akiyo ended up dragging Hana with her instead. She didn't tell Akiyo about the incident, in fear her friend would rip her insides out for getting to be anywhere within a ten metre radius of her precious Kageyama-kun. God knows what her friend will do to her if she finds out she was anywhere around the boy.

Assuming she was now known and well-remembered for spiking a ball into Tsukishima's face, Kihira even refrained from showing her face around the volleyball team members. Yesterday she changed places with Yachi in the cafeteria so that her back would be facing Sugawara and the captain who was eating at the opposite table. Of course they will not maim her - she just didn't want to stoke the memory in their minds (hoping they had forgotten about it). Hopefully, they have forgotten about her too...

But it has only been three days.

Ending the last sentence of her essay, Kihira slams her pencil onto the table and pumps her fists into the air. She had decided to hang around in class to finish all her homework before going straight home. Akiyo was having taekwondo, nothing was needed to be done in the counselling department, and she just really wanted to head home, even if that meant alone. God forbid she run into anyone from the volleyball club (especially Tsukishima Kei) and she will be able to sleep tonight.

Hana hops over to her desk as she stuffs things into her rucksack. Kihira glances up. "So...how was your meeting with Akiyo's future husband?"

Hana chuckles. "Nothing disastrous. On the outside he's not bad, but on the inside..."

Kihira grins and pats her shoulder. "You get it. I'm so proud of you."

Hana gives her a lopsided smile. "He's kinda explosive. I didn't know he was Akiyo's type."

"Type?" Kihira zips up her bag. "Akiyo has a type?"

"I don't know...I was just assuming, you know," Hana looks around before whispering. "Considering they are both quite explosive."

"Ah, you have a point." Kihira rubs her chin, trying to picture Akiyo and Kageyama as a couple. "But I don't think love has 'types', Hana."

Hana dramatically holds up both hands. "Iruka Kihira, the experienced love expert speaks!"

Kihira snorts. "Experienced? You know I have zero experience in this field."

"How would I know? We didn't know each other until the last few weeks of middle school. What if you had someone you never told me about, eh?"

"Don't be ridiculous. All of my love knowledge comes from daily observations of other people's failed relationships." Kihira says, then leans towards her friend and peruses her, askance. "What about you, Yamanaka Hana? Had your first kiss?"

"Like a guy would ever take interest in me." Hana sighs as Kihira pulls away and aligns her textbooks. "That aside, what's _your_ type?"

"My type?" Kihira echoes. "I don't have a type."

"Aww, everyone has a type, Kira."

"Love don't have types, Hana. You fall for whoever your hormones decide to fall for. It's messed up as hell."

Hana gives her a look. "Wow. You are really pessimistic when it comes to love, aren't you?"

"Not that pessimistic. Getting into a relationship at this age is kinda not my thing." She fiddles with the dolphin keychain on her bag. She's seen enough to know that most relationships during school never last till marriage. "I guess saying people have types is kinda presumptuous because you never know for sure."

Hana raises her two hands dramatically again. Kihira sneers and zips up her bag. "Well, if you believe in 'types', what's yours?"

A wide smile plasters itself onto Hana's face. "A nice, caring, calm and responsible guy. Oh, he must be funny too!"

"Ooh. Tough luck."

"Heeyy."

"Sorry Hana! It just sounds like you're asking for a pot of gold." Kihira lifts her bag from the chair. "People have flaws, you know. You can't have everything."

"I knooow." Hana pouts and crosses her arms over her chest. "Why can't all guys be perfect, like those in novels and dramas?"

Kihira smiles. "You ask for too much, don't you?"

"Hmhm." Hana shrugs and skips to her bag pack. "Do you?"

Kihira shrugs. "Whatever my hormones decide."

* * *

><p>Halfway into her drawing, loud persistent knocks bang against her bedroom door.<p>

"What?" Kihira holds her tongue from snapping at the door, more peeved at the loud noise than the sudden interruption. A raven head pokes into her room, eyes land on her sitting frame on the bed. Shiro merely intones flatly. "Dinner's ready."

Kihira drops her sketchbook onto the white pristine mattress and strolls out after her brother, keeping a deluge of whinging from escaping her ears. The next time he hits on the door like that, she will not hesitate to tell him off as nice as her peace-loving mind allows.

Her three other family members were already seated around the marble dining table. Kihira and her brother take their seats, and dinner commenced without a word from her father on her late arrival, fortunately.

This was how it always was every night, for the last fifteen years. Having dinner with the presence of every family member is an Iruka custom, that way it keeps the bonds strong and the members close. Neither Kihira nor her siblings complained. In fact, Kihira likes it this way. A strong family is a happy one, and they are one hell of a happy one. Teases, laughter and lame dad jokes were thrown around the table during this time of the day - the only time they can have a cozy, bonding time together. Her father drilled this habit into their brains like magic, unknowingly and effectively.

Tonight is just like any other night.

"So children, " Her father quips amicably, as if he knew his next words were going to irk his children. "How was school to-"

"Boooorinnnggg." Kanna echoes beside Kihira, making their father sneer. "It will always be boring."

"And you two?"

"Meh."

"Yamato was appointed scout captain." Shiro says, shrugging. "I got troop leader."

"That's better than nothing." Their mother says. "What about you?"

Kihira looks up from her piece of pork gyoza she was poking around with. "Me?"

"Yes. Have you found a extracurricular activity?"

Kihira stares at the minced pork poking out of the gyoza, mentally embracing herself. "No..."

"Why haven't you?"

"Haven't found anything I like."

"You won't know until you try." Her mother picks up a piece of maki from her plate. "Try the archery or the charity club, or the school band."

"I don't like school bands."

"Basketball?" Shiro suggests.

"They already have a school team."

"Track team?"

"...no thank you."

"Then when will you ever do something?" Her mother admonishes in an exasperated tone.

"I'm looking, I'm looking."

"Give her time." The man of the house says to his wife. "No point in doing something you don't like."

Kihira points at her father and looks at her mother. "This."

Her mother sighs in defeat. "Do something useful so you would have something to say in your resumé, or you won't get into a decent university."

"Yes, I knooow." Kihira soughs, slightly annoyed. This is a conversation they had a million times already. Resumé, resumé, resumé. Everything her mother drills her to do is all for a piece of paper. Where is the joy in this? Trying every single club would only be a waste of time and energy. Her plan is to hang back first, ask her friends about the clubs then decide what she likes. As much as she's unwilling to admit to others, a part of her is lazy and unmotivated to do anything, but her life needs spices. She's tired of it being boring and regimental.

Feeling degraded, she ate in contemplating silence the next few minutes, half-heartedly partaking in some of their next conversations. Her father seems to have notice her silence and clears his throat. "So, how did you come back from school today?"

Kihira glances up. "I walked back."

"Didn't ride with Akiyo?"

"Nahh, didn't want to bother her mother."

Her mother sets down her chopsticks. "Don't you have anyone to walk home with?"

"No one I know lives in this route."

"What about Kei?"

Of course she would say that, much to Kihira's dismay. Of all people, she just had to bring him up. She almost killed said boy with a volleyball and here her mother was, nonchalantly bringing his name up and probably going to ask her to walk with him. Nothing ever gets past her mother in this house.

"I barely know him, and you know how he is. He never guy's antisocial."

"Then why don't you talk to him?" Her father suggests, popping a fishcake into his mouth.

Kihira narrows her eyes at her parents. "Since when did you guys not mind me hanging around boys?" She looks to her father. "Whatever happened to 'If a boy touches you I will castrate you both'?"

Kanna and Shiro laughs. Their old man straightens up in his chair and smirks. "Better than having to look behind you every five seconds, no?"

She grins. "I have a pocket knife with me."

"Goodness gracious, Kira." Her mother admonishes upon hearing the word. "One of these days you're going to stab yourself with that thing."

Shiro made it a point to dramatically gasp at his mother's interpretation of a knife. Insulting! The man of the house, a knife enthusiast himself who successfully instilled the passion of knives to his two older children much to his wife's dismay, steps in. "It's a switchblade. It's safe."

"If it stabs hers or any of your buttocks don't come running to me for bandages!"

Shiro laughs. "That's would hurt, but we won't die. Didn't you hear what happened to Jogoya-san? Went out hunting with his buddy and got shot in the butt by accident. Came out alive."

Kihira points at her brother. "See?"

Her mother gives her a dangerous look. Deciding to end the discussion, her father harrumphes, catching his daughter's attention. "Just tag along with him or something. This is for your safety, you know."

She is too tired to argue with anyone now. Resisting the urge to sigh, Kihira stabs her fishball with her chopsticks. "I knooww."

"Make sure you do it."

"Yeesss."

Needless to say, like hell she is going to.

* * *

><p>The air is fresh, the evening sky is smiling, the birds are chirping, and the trees are rustling.<p>

Kihira is plugged to her earphones.

Kihira hums to the melody of the song playing into her ears as she arranges Kanna's handkerchief over the clothing line. Chores were a drag, but music never fails to make them endurable, or less painful as Shiro would say. She hangs the last article of clothing and heaves a breath. She looks around the spacious back garden. Not feeling like going into the house yet, she strolls over to her mother's row of potted plants aligned against the low concrete wall. She squats to check the roses. Apart from a few that has withered and has yet to bloom, the others had grown into beautiful blossoms of blood red.

She sits there and hums a little longer, barely hitting a high note and going off-pitch. She cringes in agony and inwardly snickers at herself. She hopes she didn't sound too loud. All the singing Shiro does when it's his turn to wash the dishes were already enough for all their neighbours to go mad. Really, she knows better than to embarrass herself in her garden where only fences mounted on concrete dividers separate houses.

Feeling her legs starting to sore, she stands up and stretches, her eyes glazing up- only to meet a pair of golden brown pupils peering at her over the white-coated fence.

"What the-!" Kihira yelps and jumps. She recomposes shortly after evaluating who those pair of eyes belongs to. She presses a palm to her chest, calming her heartbeat. She can't see the bottom half of his face, but she can feel him chortling behind the fence.

"You sing horrible." He remarks first.

Kihira narrows her eyes at the derisive boy. "I wasn't singing. I was humming."

"Either way, you're horrible."

Is this boy taking revenge for the ball incident?

But Tsukishima Kei talked to her. That is surprising. His face doesn't seem bruised and the same glasses still sits on the bridge of his nose. Kihira feels a wave of relief wash over her.

Getting into an argument on self-dignity with someone like Tsukishima is pointless. Kihira removes her earphones and intones flatly. "What do you want, Tsukishima?"

Tsukishima says nothing and only points behind her. She looks abaft over her shoulder. There in the middle of the grass patch of her green garden sits a volleyball. He was playing volleyball? She must have not realised due to the music she was listening to. She picks it up and throws it over the fence, careful not to hit his face this time. Tsukishima mumbles something inaudible and leaves the fence. He's so incredibly tall he didn't even need to stand on his toes to look over the fence. Kihira walks towards the divider and positions her foot in the gap between the concrete divider and the fence, pushing herself up to stand on the concrete while hooking her arms around the top of the fence to stabilise herself. She sees the whole of Tsukishima's back garden, embellished with abundance potted plants of various kinds. Looks like their mothers aren't very different.

She watches Tsukishima bounce his ball in the middle of the space, back facing her. Not actually playing volleyball. She presses her lips together, mustering up the courage to say something.

"Hey Tsukishima."

He stops bouncing and turns to look at her.

"I'm really, really sorry about that day."

He doesn't say anything for a while, before proceeding to bounce his ball again. "Mhm."

"What?"

"It's. Fine." He grumbles out, casting her a dirty look. Kihira finds it somewhat funny and smirks. Tsukishima Kei, a complex character packed with snide comments, a spiteful attitude and a knack for getting annoyed - yet this is the first time she's seen or heard him say 'It's fine'. Ameyuri despises him, Akiyo doesn't even need to talk to him to hate him, and Kihira can tell he's trouble just by the way he acts around Karasuno Volleyball Club members.

But she believes that there is more to Tsukishima than that cold, snappy exterior. She has seen his quiet side. As much as she's reluctant to admit, she has felt urged to go over and talk to him during dinner gatherings (if it wasn't because of those headphones), thinking he was feeling lonely and just socially awkward. But now she knows that's not the case. He just hates people in general.

Assuming Tsukishima has been like this for a long time, he must have dealt with all kinds of reaction from all kinds of people - but all the same. Either pissed, disgruntled or I-am-going-to-stab-you looks. Kihira however, will not feed him those responses. She refuses to satisfy him, if that is what making him pleased. He doesn't seem to respect anyone, not even Yamaguchi, so if he is patronizing and dissing on everyone, she needs to maneuver her way around so he wouldn't do the same to her.

Tsukishima turns around and finds Kihira still standing at the fence. He narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Nothing." Kihira jumps down from the fence, slightly astonished by his rudeness and mumbles a little too loud, "No wonder the low score on that psychometric test..."

A split second later Tsukishima's nose was on the fence. "What did you say?"

She doesn't look at him. "I don't think I said anything."

Tsukishima is not pleased. "What psychometric test?"

Kihira finally meets his eyes, feeling unusually bold today. "I said nothing. You need to get your ears checked."

Disconcerted, he utters back. "And you need to get your vocal cords fixed."

"Maybe. But I don't like singing anyways. You, on the other hand, listen to music all the time, no?"

His eyes fix on hers. "I can hear perfectly fine."

"You know what, just forget what I said." Kihira plugs her earphones in and pretends that the grass grew a hundred times more interesting, hoping this stance would avert him off.

Baffled but refusing to look like a desperate puppy, Tsukishima steps away from the fence and put on his headphones. He could care less about the numbers on a psychological test that does no impact on his life. As they both continue to putter around their respective back gardens, a new regard develops.

Now they know there's more to each other than they originally thought.

* * *

><p><strong>AN : Well, sorry for the rather blunt and plain chapter, but I'm back. Huehue.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I can't believe it took me 16,000 words to realize that present tense is not suited for this story after all. This was a matter I debated a lot over, because I've always written in past tense and wanted to try something different, but now damn me. However, I don't think I will be reverting to past tense - I started with present, imma stick with present.**

**And thank you for tuning in to the fifth episode of How To Deal With A Baby With Brother Issues! In this long gruesome episode you can expect to see some profanities uttered by our very own protagonist (oooo how exciting), more Kihira-Tsukishima interaction, a new side of Kihira, Ameyuri as well as Hana that we've never seen, and the very anticipated appearance of a certain bedheaded volleyball team captain that all the girls here just can't help but swoon over (Kuroo is mine, and if anyone tells me otherwise imma cut a bitch).**

**For warning, this chapter is what earned this story a T rating, that means swear words are involved and...some other things (I don't want to spoil anything, but don't get your hopes too high - no one is banging anyone). So sit back and read. And forgive my grammar mistakes. **

* * *

><p>"Can I suggest something?"<p>

Kihira yawns as soon her friend utters the words, not from boredom, but from exhaustion. They have been filing sheets of paper into maroon folders since the bell rang, and now she knows that it takes approximately three hours of repetitive paper-shuffling to plant the idea of slamming her head against the wall into her mind. When they were done, she let her mind recuperate by listening to Ameyuri ramble about parents who ask for too much, and would frequently add in a verse or two from her own experience.

Ameyuri is a pleasant person to be around, albeit her vivid and funny comments that made Kihira cough up her water more times than she'd admit. She's cool-headed, handled things well and has a great sense of humour, especially when it came to humouring her classmates. It's a bonus she wasn't the kind that likes to gossip or flail like a lovestruck little girl. Her bluntness is her charm, and she wielded it whenever someone needed her consultant. Kihira was never the consulting type of person, nor was she the type that opened up about thoughts and woes. She hasn't had friends who were like that (Akiyo was more of the comedic type than the feel-y type, and Hana was too simple-minded), so when Ameyuri rolled in, despite her feeling hesitant about it, she figured it was time she opened up to someone for once . After all, trust works two ways.

"You most probably want to join a sports team, right?" Ameyuri asks, legs propped on top of the white table as they speak. "Given any thoughts about the softball team? We need members."

"I barely know anything about softball." Kihira says. A feminine demographic of baseball comes to mind, and she immediately chastises herself for making ignorant assumptions. "What is it like?"

"Well, it's like the softer and female version of baseball." Ameyuri replies, not catching the inaudible snort from her brunette friend. "But you should come and try it someday, who knows, it may be your new thing. And it's pretty fun, I guarantee you won't be locked in a room and tormented to vomit your creative guts onto a piece of paper in ink."

"Yeah, maybe I will." Kihira says, contemplating her choice. Softball is by far the only suggestion that appealed to her even though the only sure knowledge she has of it is running and ass-tight pants are involved. She makes a mental note to search it up on the web when she gets home.

"Anyways," Ameyuri says as she puts her feet down again and reaches for her bag. "I'll be leaving soon. See you tomorrow."

Kihira waves and exits the room, thinking she might as well reward herself at the vending machines after a hard day. Upon reaching, she inserts a coin and pushes a few buttons before a can of grape soda tumbles into the cartridge. She picks up her purchase, pulls off the pin with an easy nail grip and takes her first gulp.

Fingers hugging around the chilled can, she shuffles down the corridor near the second gymnasium. The usual noises screaming athletics were heard. The Volleyball Club must be tiring themselves to death again. She was about to walk past the gymnasium when an object kisses her shoes.

Kihira looks down at a round item in green, white and red spiral patterns. She glances up at the entrance, her gaze meeting a pair of orbs that belongs to a tall, built boy she's never seen before. Donned in a red and black jersey, he runs his fingers through his bedheaded hair and waves at her. He points to the ball at her feet.

"Sorry! Ball please?"

Kihira picks up the ball with her left free hand and tosses it to him in an underarm sweeping motion, and made sure she threw hard and high enough for the boy to catch it. To her self satisfaction, it lands accurately into his hands. Looks like those hours of playing basketball with her brother didn't go to the dumps after all.

"Thanks!" The boy flashes her a grateful yet playful grin. She gives him a lopsided smile as he filed back into the gym. Through the gaps of the door she could see others boys clad in the same red jersey shooting volleyballs into the air.

She raises a brow. It was normal for schools to have practice matches against each other as a way to strengthen the team's gameplay and rectify their flaws, not to mention collect some information on the opposing team just in case they were to face each other in real competitions. Most of these visits to schools tend to turn into a somewhat degraded version of an espionage, but that was a risk most school teams were willing to take. And it builds friendships. Karasuno rarely had practice matches in the home ground, however, especially whenever Kihira happened to be around, so she wasn't going to pass up the chance of taking a glimpse of students from another school. Now she was feeling like one of those typical teenage girls who just wants to look at boys from other schools as she approaches the entrance.

Except, she reminds herself, she isn't one of those typical teenage girls who just wants to look at boys from other schools.

She pushes open the door and enters quietly, not wanting to attract any attention. Swiftly, she makes it for the stands as soon as the whistle was blown.

When she got there she lets loose a breath in relief and leans her hands against the baluster. She looks around the stands and find no other audience in the gym. That's a pity. Where are all the rabid hormonally insane teenage girls when she needs them? She was hoping she wouldn't be the only one there watching the match.

Can still to her lips, her eyes look down. The boys were lined up in two, one row of boys in their signature black and orange jersey and the other in red and black. All of their foreheads were glistening under the bright fluorescent lights. This isn't their first match. They bow towards each other and move to their positions. Karasuno was on her left, all of them looking revved up for the game, especially the bald one who was hollering taunting words to the other side of the court. Tsukishima Kei was on the left back of the team, looking as disinterested in the world around him than ever. Even Akiyo's beloved Kageyama-kun was working up a facial expression.

Despite being in the gym more than a few times she liked, Kihira has never paid much attention to Tsukishima's gameplay. The only ones who stood out in court were the ginger, Akiyo's beloved Kageyama-kun and sometimes when he's screaming something passionate, the buzz cut. She was never really watching them play when she was with Akiyo, mostly staring off into a distant space or once had her eyes fixed on the two sparrows mating on the windowsills outside.

So when the game started without her realising and the first score went to the opposing team when Tsukishima so deliberately failed to block an easy spike, she sneered. Either this boy bribed his way into the team, or Karasuno really didn't have any better members. Either way, the club was in deep shit. The other team, whose name she later learnt was Nekoma, was doing much better as a team, as an overall than Karasuno. They don't have particularly strong offense power, but they manage to keep the ball off the floor most times. Karasuno Volleyball team was falling out, Akiyo had told her a few weeks back, but was getting back on track with some pretty spontaneous strategies and fresh members, mostly the courtesy of Kageyama-kun (Kihira rolled her eyes at this) and the insane jump-height Hinata Shouyo kept persistently achieving. The boy was a fireball when it came to volleyball.

Maybe the team wasn't in such a deep shit.

Though it surprises her that Tsukishima Kei isn't. Each time Nekoma's ace makes a spike, he made an effort to jump, but not an effort to block, resulting in another point for Nekoma. And he just walks back to his position nonchalantly. It doesn't seem like he is that into volleyball, seeing him making such small efforts to block, so why even bother playing? Each passing score lost to Nekoma because of his demotivation, Kihira finds herself glued to his figure on the court, and the more she felt irritated by it.

Then her mind makes a detour, like always. It wasn't her place to feel irritated, really, when she is the one without a club.

Lips on her grape soda can, she watches Tsukishima serve as she etches the current score to the back of her head. 15-17. And Nekoma is leading. He makes the jump and slams the ball to the other side of the court, only to be received by their libero. The ball bounces upwards to the heft of their setter, before being tossed to their captain who stands right in front of Tsukishima. They glance at each other, before jumping simultaneously with their outstretched arms. The volleyball spirals off the captain's palm to Tsukishima's and slams down onto Nekoma's ground.

"Good one, Tsukki!"

"Don't mind, don't mind!"

Kihira lets loose a breath she doesn't realise she's been holding. Her eyes scan the Nekoma captain and it hits her that he's the same boy from outside the gym earlier. She takes a sip of her drink. There is so much her female schoolmates are missing out on right now.

When her eyes sweep over to Karasuno's side, her breath hitches. Tsukishima spots her at the stands. They lock eyes for a brief moment, before Kihira averts her orbs onto Nishinoya almost too quickly, and rather naturally. For some reason she couldn't bring herself to look straight at him for longer than two seconds after that backyard encounter. She isn't usually as bold as that day, but she wasn't ashamed and doesn't regret what she did to irk him. She doesn't mind losing, but it displeases her that she just lost an eye contact game to someone she never meant to look at in the first place.

Losing an eye contact game also meant that she doesn't get to see the insignificant smirk gracing Tsukishima's lips as he breaks his gaze, but she bet he did it. There is no possible way Tsukishima Kei would beat her in a staring competition and not somewhat celebrate to himself - if he even knew there was a competition, that is. He was perhaps, only taking childish pride in besting her at her own game.

Or maybe, he was smirking at something utterly irrelevant. Or maybe he wasn't smirking at all.

Kihira mentally kicks herself and takes a big gulp of her grape soda, brows furrowing at the opposite stands. She's over-analyzing him. She needs to get herself together before she starts doing the same to everything and everyone else, so she resumes watching the game. Her eyes dart around the court as they follow the ball, from when it leaves the hands of the Nekoma's libero, to Karasuno's captain, on towards Nekoma's setter to Nekoma's ace.

Tsukishima leaps in sync with the ace once again, but not in full power as Karasuno's number 3 did. His hands are stretched out lean and straight without a quiver, seeming as if he isn't even planning to move his hands if the ball diverts. Just as expected, Nekoma's ace slams the ball dangerously close to Tsukishima's left arm, but far enough to evade it, scoring a match point for Nekoma.

Kihira sighs. She guzzles down the remaining drink in her can before leaving the stands. She knows who wins. As she tears the can away from her mouth, the whistle blows, signalling the end of who-knows-what-number-sequence practice matches between Karasuno and Nekoma.

"One more time!"

Groans erupt from all around, making Kihira chuckle to herself as she descends the stairs with the empty can. She wants to leave as soon and as quick as possible while they are all lying pissed-dead on the floor, so she scurries down the last remaining steps and heads towards the door.

As she was walking, from her peripheral vision she could see a panting Tsukishima looking at her from his position, probably wondering what she was doing here. As their eyes meet again, this time instead of shying away, Kihira very boldly gives him a lopsided smile, something close to a polite smirk, its intention unknown to even herself, before exiting the gymnasium and into the safe hands of whatever is outside.

Just when she could heave a sigh of relief, a voice she hasn't register in quite a while calls out to her in an uncomfortably high volume.

"Iruka-san!"

Her body tenses up, and slowly swivels around towards the gym. Just as expected, a couple dozen pairs of eyes glance to her direction, with one pair belonging to Karasuno's very flamboyant libero.

But the pair closest to the entrance is golden, hidden behind spectacles and piercing at her like daggers at a bamboo frame.

"Iruka-san!" Nishinoya waves, accompanied by his excruciatingly loud volume yet again. "A ball rolled out! Can you get it for us?"

How he even knew her name, she doesn't even have the luxury to explore at the moment as eyes are watching her. She scans the corridor cursorly. "I don't see anything."

"It's right there." Tsukishima points behind one of the pillars as he so grudgingly states. She cranes her neck to the side, and spots a ball cunningly hidden behind the pole, before inching her way there and picking it up.

When she does and turns around, Tsukishima was standing at the door looking more distasteful than usual, like he was forced to babysit an eight year old with ADHD. And she thought that polite smirk would change something. Dispelling the thought of tossing it at him, she walks towards him with an equally disgusted look on her face, and handed it to him.

"You know, you're really pissy for your age." She doesn't forget to add. She's really not acting like herself these days.

He accepts the ball with a scornful expression, his sharp gaze stabbing through hers before veering back into the gym without a word. She stares at his back for a split second, wondering if she would ever reach the day where he says more than two words to her, before walking away from the gymnasium, shuddering at the thought of his aura. He is someone she wouldn't want to offend, yet she feels as if she has already dug her own grave.

She looks around for a trash can before another more familiar voice says her name. She spins around.

"Kira? What are you doing here?"

* * *

><p>"Ughh..."<p>

Kihira slams her face into her book with a loud thud, making Yachi Hitoka flinch beside her. It is the third time she has done that in the past half hour, and Yachi is beginning to worry about the possibility of her friend getting a concussion. Whatever it is that's bothering her, Yachi is going to put and end to it. Putting down her pen, she leans towards the brunette to inspect her state. Iruka, face buried in a mass of scribbled math formulas and digits in black ink, murmurs something into the papers, otherwise remains quiet. This scares Yachi, because Kihira hasn't stayed down this long the last two times.

"Umm...Iruka-san? Are you okay?"

Kihira turns her head towards Yachi, cheeks still pressing against her desk. Black ink smears across her nose. "I'm fine. Maths is killing me."

"Oh." So that was what it is. Rather inconsequential after all. "I can help you, if you want me to."

"Oh thanks." Kihira sits up and holds out her book before rubbing her eyes. "Question nine."

Yachi studies the question. It didn't take her long before she hands it back to her. "Okay, so you see...you subtract this from a hundred and eighty degrees because opposite angles add up to a hundred and eighty degrees..."

Kihira abruptly takes the book from Yachi, making the girl jump. She scrutinizes the diagram again before coming to a realization. "Ohhh. I didn't see that. Thanks!" She grins to herself and picks up her pen. She looks at Yachi's state and places her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Sorry about that. You okay?"

"I should be asking you that, Iruka-san. You hit your head three times!"

"I'm fine." She assures the fretted girl. "It's not like I was going to kill myself."

Yachi smiles as Kihira starts scribbling away again. The teacher had errands to run and excused herself from the class for a few minutes, so they have some time to eliminate a few assignments and chit-chat while she's gone. Seeing as other students were shooting the breeze as well, Yachi scoots a little closer to Kihira and watches as the tip of her pen sprawls about the paper.

"Hey Yachi?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you have a club?"

Yachi gently presses her elbow on the table. "No...should I join one?"

Kihira looks up from her book. "I guess you should. It would make your high school life a lot more interesting."

Yachi muses for a while. "True. But I can't really do anything..."  
>"Then learn, right? That's what club activities are for, I guess." Kihira replies. She doesn't stiffen at the irony of her words. "Maybe...be a club manager?"<p>

"Club manager? But..."

"Aww come on, you need to break out of your shy girl exterior anyways," She suggests.

"Ahh maybe?"

Kihira couldn't help but smile at how much they were similar in this aspect. Clueless and decision-less. "I was just wondering if you could tell me about some clubs, since you know, I'm clubless and indecisive."

"Oh, I heard Yamanaka-san talking about that." Yachi says. "You seem like you really need to get into a club."

She sighs. "Yep. Mom. Boring school life. Inactive social life. All that rot. I need change, or else my life is dead." She hits her head against the table again as Yachi cringes. "Why...why..."

"Maybe I can help you?" Yachi offers. "I...I can tell you if I find anything interesting."

Kihira slowly turns her head towards Yachi, more ink doting her nose as she does so, eyes growing big. "You will?"

"Yes! Just...don't hit your head again!"

Kihira gives her an absent-minded look, before laughing, startling the poor girl in the process. "I appreciate it, but don't go spending so much time on it. It's not a big deal, really. Hey, we can help each other look for clubs."

Yachi grins in relief. "Sure! Uh, how about Art Club? Yamanaka-san said it's great for artistic people."

"She already refused." A new voice joins their conversation before Kihira could deflect the subtle compliment. She and Yachi watch as Hana brings a chair over and sits with them, giving them a wide grin. "Kihira said it 'isn't her type'."

"Yeah, I can be a bit, uh, picky when it comes to club participation." Kihira cautiously admits. "But I'll be open to suggestions."

"Define open." Hana teases. Kihira narrows her eyes at her.

"You can't be Hana. Where did my sweet little Hana go?"

Hana giggles and shakes her head. "It's all Akiyo's fault."

"I can see how. Is she still dragging you along with her to the gym?" Kihira asks, resuming to her recondite mathematical problems with Yachi watching and listening beside her.

"Yes...can you take your shift back?"

Kihira laughs softly, mildly amused by this new version of Hana. Just how big of an impact did a few trips to the gym and a hormonal rabid fangirl did to innocent Hana? Akiyo was tainting the poor girl.

"I really have no reason to be there, but I guess I just have to assume responsibility." Kihira knocks the end of her pen against her book repeatedly and thinks about having to go back to that place again. She frowns when she realises that the last time she was there was just yesterday, and that a certain blonde boy could be found in that place. Now she's starting to regret saying anything to him.

"Aww it's not that bad, really. There is this one guy who would occasionally take off his shirt and cel-"

"I did not need to know that. And since when were you into muscular guys?"

"I never said he's muscular." Hana clarifies, not noticing Yachi spluttering at the sidelines from the mental image of a topless boy. "But he's kinda toned? Not very toned, like muscular or anything, but he has the build. He has probably been playing volleyball for pretty long now."

"The Volleyball Club?" Yachi finally piques up.

"Yep." Hana nods. "The boys are a little crazy, but they are pretty entertaining to watch. Bless their captain and manager though. Some of them are pretty cute too."

Kihira shoots her an odd, disdainful, to which she replies, "What?"

"I bet Akiyo would die to be their manager." Kihira remarks, realising rather late that Yachi was with them, giving her a puzzled look. She quickly adds. "She just loooves muscles."

Hana winces at the save and stifles a laughter, despite Yachi knowing that Akiyo is not particularly muscle person, which Akiyo revealed on one occasion - maybe just the ones of one particular boy. "Akiyo is already in Taekwondo, so no matter how much she loves muscles she's not leaving sport she loves. The only sport that allows her to kick some crotches and break some legs."

As if on cue, a raven-haired girl pokes into their area. "I heard my name."

Hana turns around as Yachi and Kihira look at their new member. "Oh hi Akiyo."

Their friend grins and slams her hands on Hana's shoulders, making the girl yelp. "Tell me, what were you talking about? Backstabbing me eh?"

"No no...it's nothing!"

"I demand you hand over the intel!" Akiyo says with a dramatic deep growl, making Yachi and Kihira chortle.

"No!"

"Yaass! Or I will unleash my fury!" Akiyo violently shakes Hana, making the poor girl gag and choke while giggling through her throat. Yachi didn't have enough seconds to stop the mini fiasco before Hana's movements hit Kihira's water bottle that was standing idly at the edge of the table. They watch in horror as the bottle tip over and hit the floor, spilling out the contents in the bottle. A puddle forms below where they sit and beyond, earning a few displeased looks from their surrounding classmates.

It takes them a few seconds to register what happened.

"I...am so sorry." Hana says, still stoned to her chair. Akiyo merely laughs as Yachi stares at the floor. Kihira sighs and rubs her temple.

"Joy."

* * *

><p>Recess is typically a time for students to satisfy growling stomachs. However, for three girls in particular, they have to clean up a wet mess.<p>

"Are you sure you don't need help?" Yachi asks the trio who are going to be the only ones in the class for the next few minutes or so. Tables and chairs from the accident scene were moved away, revealing a stained white-tiled floor. To make things worse, it wasn't plain water that was in Kihira's bottle, but soya bean milk. Akiyo and Kihira were already armed with mops the moment Hana and the bucket arrived.

"Nah, it's fine." Kihira says as she beholds the milky puddle at her feet. She decided to stay back and help in cleaning up the place with the two troublemakers just to make sure Akiyo does a good job on her part. She does not fancy the idea of having ants at her feet for the rest of her school year. What a day to be bringing soya bean milk to school. "The offenders have to take responsibility."

Akiyo snorts. "Hey! Are you implying I'm irresponsible?" She points the tip of her mop towards her face. "I am the most responsible warrior of the East!"

"Why are you speaking all noble-y." Kihira says as she picks up her now empty bottle. "Great Warrior of the East, you cracked my bottle."

"Yes yes I'm sorry."

"Okay...so I'll just go for recess." Yachi says, taking little hesitant steps towards the door. "Umm...thank you for cleaning my place! And take care!"

After Yachi left, Akiyo shakes her head as she dips her mop into the bucket of water Hana brought in. "She's so frustratingly cute."

"Oh I did not know you swing that way, Akiyo." Kihira chaffs, waiting for her turn to dip her mop.

"Hey, you know my sexual orientation, and how I feel about boys."

"Like Kageyama-kun?" Hana pipes in, hand steadying the bucket as Akiyo lifts up the mop.

"Yes. Like Kageyama-kun." Akiyo says, face heating up. She leans her mop against a nearby table and slaps her cheeks. "Don't say his name so boldly!"

Kihira almost roll her eyes, and suddenly has a wild thought. "You might be straight, but I don't know about Kageyama."

Akiyo, who was just starting to mop the floor, stops and turns to look at her. "What do you mean?"

"Oh I don't know...he looks like the kind of guy who would rather hump a volleyball."

Akiyo explodes. "What?! Ewww!"

"How do you think he does it with the volleyball though?" Kihira says as she put a finger to her chin. She makes a gesture with her hands that looks like a train ramming into a wall. "Where does he...stick his thing in?"

"Oh my god shut up!"

Hana doubles over in laughter, then recovers a little to chip in. "Oh! The air hole?"

"Oh yes! But that's not big enou- oh wait of course it is."

Akiyo cries out in disdain and holds her head, before pointing at her guffawing friends and raising her voice. "Iruka Kihira! And Yamanaka Hana! Kneel down this instant you fools!"

Kihira and Hana ignore her orders and continues choking at the ground, more at the mental image stuck in their brains than the rowdy statement. Hana was laughing especially the loudest. "I'm dying! I'm dying!"

Seeing as her friends paid her no heed, she tries again. "What is wrong with the both of you today? What are you- on crack or something?"

"Sort of." Kihira's laughter started to die down, then a grin makes its way to her face. "Considering you 'cracked' my bottle."

Akiyo stares at her friend, mouth hung wide open at the sudden pun as Hana plunges her into another deep fit of laughter. Akiyo moves forward to slash at Kihira with her mop and banters. "Iruka Kihira!"

Kihira blocks Akiyo's blow with her own mop. She jumps out of the way before Akiyo could land another one, guffawing as she does so. She usually wouldn't risk getting caught dead having a sword fight with cleaning appliances in a school compound, but the moment was too amazing to come to a halt. A childish antic once or twice wouldn't hurt.

Watching Kihira scurry away from her, Akiyo sighs and shakes her head, with an I-give-up-on-these-people look on her face. "Well- at least I'm not friends with a giraffe!"

Kihira stops at the sudden mention of an animal. "What? Giraffe?"

Akiyo smirks deviously. "Oh come on, Kihira, you know who I am talking about. 'Big boy next door'?"

"What what? Who is that? Why do I not know something?" Hana glances at Akiyo, then to Kihira, who was flaring her nostrils at the girl in disbelief.

"We are just neighbours." Kihira waves her off and grabs her mop. "I have nothing on that guy and you know that."

"Ohh? Explain why you were at the gym yesterday, talking to him?" Akiyo grins, fingers still hugging around the mop.

"I told you, Akiyo. Was just there to watch a good match." Kihira explains, dragging her mop across the wet floor. "And I just happen to stumble into him."

"Liar!" Akiyo points her mop at her in a sweeping motion. "I demand the truth and nothing but the truth!"

"Our conversation wasn't even pleasant!"

"Liaaaarr!" Akiyo playfully charges at her with her weapon. Kihira instinctively swings her mop upwards to block her without realising the cause. Droplets of liquid from her mop came crashing down on Akiyo, staining her uniform. Hana yelps. Kihira gasps.

"Oh- I'm sorry!" Kihira cringes as Akiyo gapes down at her state. She wasn't drenched, but with that soya bean milk-splattered top, there was no guarantee it could be washed off.

Slowly turning her head up, Akiyo gives Kihira a harmless glare and raises her mop high towards the ceiling. With fury, she lets out her war cry, "War is declaaaared!"

"Oi wait!" Kihira tries to stop her but Akiyo was already charging at her with full bull speed, her mop clenched tightly in her fingers. She swings the mop at Kihira but the girl manages to dodge it by side-stepping the last second. Kihira grins. "Missed!"

"I'll get you! Come back here!" Akiyo starts chasing Kihira around the classroom, both armed with their make shift weapons and murder intent. Hana could only watch from the side and cringe whenever their mops collide against each other.

"Guys! Don't shout too loud!" Hana warns, wary of teachers who often walk by classrooms during break time. Seeing her friends' childish antics and current situation, she decided there was really no point in stopping them anymore. Now she wasn't sure if she wanted to clap and laugh or join them.

Kihira runs to the other end of the class and holds out her mop with both hands. "Behold the power of my light saber!"

"Hah!" Akiyo snorts and veers her mop at her, causing their swords to hit against each other. She swings hard enough for Kihira to stumble a little, but not enough for her to fall to her butt. "Thou shall hath no mercy!"

"Oh you think you're so great with the archaic language?" Kihira taunts and dodges Akiyo's fourth blow. She ducks out of the way before her friend could land a fifth one and sprints towards the front of the class. She spots an empty table and climbs onto it, now standing on the wooden desk tremendously surpassing her opponent in height. She strikes a war pose, sticking her mop up high in the air. "Have at thee! I will heave on the gorge on thy livings!"

Right then at the corner of their eyes, someone walks by the classroom. The girls turn towards the figure, sight distracted. Kihira, still posing on the desk, locks eyes with the person and feels her heart stop.

It was Tsukishima Kei.

His facial expression at that time was so complex it couldn't be described with just words. His golden orbs still on her, looking a little between shocked, amused and slightly scarred, but on a major scale, a constipated look dawns upon his face. Kihira has seen that look several times, and it only appears when someone around him does something beyond stupid and incomprehensible.

Something in Kihira deterred her from breaking her gaze from him. There was a very unnerving silence before she regrettingly breaks it. "Hi Tsukki."

Tsukishima doesn't stop walking, but eyes her oddly, as if he just came face to face with a gargoyle singing on drugs, until he saunters past the classroom. He turns his head away and disappears out of their sight.

There was another uncomfortable silence, before Hana and Akiyo shatter it with their unashamed laughter.

"Who was that?" Hana asks no one in specific before breaking into a cachinnation, pulling Akiyo down into the abyss of cackling with her.

"Giraffe! Giraffe!" Akiyo manages to spit before crashing to the floor next to the puddle of half-dried milky substance, not at all bothering about the possibility of it staining her shirt again.

Feeling the blood from her face drain away as quick as it came, Kihira steps down the table and drops her mop. Ignoring her companions, she slaps a palm to her forehead and slowly drags it down her face.

Shame overwhelms her, but she can't quite fathom why.

* * *

><p>As soon as the school bell rang, Kihira heads out of class along with the throng of students squirming out of the classroom door. The first years' classrooms, like any other years, are situated in the same row of the school block, so every once the bell signalling the end of school rang, the corridors would be permeated with scent of sweaty bodies. Hanging back by standing against the windows of the classroom, she waits until the crowd of teenagers dissipated before walking towards class 1-4.<p>

When she reaches, Ameyuri was still languidly collecting her items on the table, unfazed that she's the last to leave the classroom again. On the outside, it never appealed to her that her friend was a slow person, always doing things at her own pace, never bothered much about the world around her. But that was what makes Nara Ameyuri elfin. She never gave a damn.

Ameyuri looks up and spots her friend at the doorway, and signals her to come in. Kihira pokes her head into the classroom, before apprehensively stepping in and towards her friend even though the classroom was empty. She could never help but feel wary every time she enters a foreign classroom. Ameyuri's seat is the fourth table of the fifth row, her table getting some considerable amount of sunlight around late morning, something she always expressed gratitude for. Her eyes, Kihira noticed, often had trouble adjusting to certain intensity of gleam.

"I'm gonna take a while, so you might want to sit somewhere." Ameyuri holds up two books labeled 'science report'. "I didn't have time to copy the notes, and I was called to Mikoto-sensei's office today. Inconsiderate science teacher of mine."

"Alright. Take your time." Kihira looks around at the many wooden desks she can sit on. Her eyes land on the table positioned diagonally back from Ameyuri's place, and instinctively moves towards it.

Her friend looks over her shoulder. "That's the jerk-twat's seat. Don't sit there, you'll catch his germs."

Kihira chuckles, and slowly bit it back at a particular embarrassing memory that just occurred few days prior. She puts her bag on his table and slumps onto his seat.

Her friend shakes her head. "Can't believe you remember where he sits."

"You're the one who keeps reminding me when we're on duty." She responds. Ameyuri constantly, if not frequently, complains about the blonde, but then again she has a point. Kihira was never the kind who remembers trivial matters. Maybe the recent encounters she kept having with the blonde boy is getting into her head somehow, though she's not certain in what way. It annoys her how the image of Tsukishima's blank, irritated face keeps appearing in her mind these days, and it isn't as if she is _attracted_ to him.

"So, regarding me meeting Mikoto-sensei earlier, we've got some updates on the computer to make." From the way the movement of her pen accelerates, she could tell Ameyuri is almost done. "Goody goody. I love computers."

"I really don't mind either way. And don't you have softball practice? It's Thursday." Kihira reaches her hands into the drawers and drums her fingers on the thin wood, a habit that annoyed Yamato, the boy who sits beside her, to no end.

"Nahh, I can skip anytime I want. The captain's not that strict. Besides, we don't have enough members to play a proper game." Ameyuri clasps her report book and shoves it into her bag. Kihira nods in acknowledgement. The softball team has only recently been formed, and even though Ameyuri doesn't show it, she really wants Kihira to try it someday, and hopefully fill in some spaces. Kihira wasn't quite sure if her commitment to the club can be guaranteed, and that's the only thing that's been holding her back from joining every other clubs. Commitment issues - she never thought she would have them.

When Kihira pulls her hand from the drawer, her fingers catches onto something in the far corner of it. She looks into the drawer as Ameyuri begins speaking. "Oh and do you remember Aya Morita? I heard she's doing pretty well. You should be proud of yourself."

Not really digesting what she said, she pulls out the rough, flat object from Tsukishima's drawer. It was a science report book, with his name on it.

Ameyuri turns around when Kihira didn't respond the way she expected, and raises her brow when she sees her with a book miraculously in her grasp. "Kihira?"

Kihira flashes it at her. "It's Tsukishima's. I found it in his drawer."

Ameyuri looked a little surprised. "That's strange. Kuei-boy never seemed like the forgetful type to me. He always checks his drawer."

Making an effort to not titter at her nickname of him, Kihira gives her a pointed look, to which Ameyuri responded with a "What?"

"You watch him a lot, do you?"

"That's a skill I learnt from you, Iruka. Observe your enemies." Ameyuri says, sanguine, although as far as Kihira recalls, she doesn't have enemies. "Plus, Kuei-boy is not the only one I observe around here. Do you know Ichimaru Kiba? He has a habit of digging his nose and consuming his boogers right in the middle of class. Caught him several times already."

She places his book on the table and jokes, "Ah, so the student surpasses the teacher, I suppose?"

Ameyuri grins. "No, I have yet to save a person from suicidal thoughts. But if you will," She bends her body towards her and joins her palms together. "Teach me your ways, o young wise one."

"There's really no telling if she would do it again." Kihira murmurs, and picks up her bag. "So," She juts her chin at the brown book. "What are we going to do with this?"

"You're his neighbour, aren't ya?" Ameyuri slings her bag over her shoulder and pats her on hers. "Being the good civilian you are, I suppose the duty of a good neighbour would apply to you too?"

Kihira looks down at the book, and feel her forehead crease at the name written neatly on the cover. After that rather mortifying incident with the mop fight and pose, she was really hoping she would never need to run into him again. Sure, she would have to see him again tomorrow at their neighbours' dinner gathering, but the other kids and the playstation in her house would be sufficient to diminish any chances of them coming face to face. Tsukishima could be cold, but he was also a teaser, and the last thing she wants is to hide her reddening face from him if they ever get to that point. He ridiculed her once, and he won't be afraid to do it again.

If she really has to face him, then she has a leathery exterior to work on. There was no way she was going to let any of his mocking penetrate her. She's quite confident she can pull it off, given how she acted with him during that backyard encounter.

For the only and last try, she hands it to Ameyuri. "Can't you do it?"

Her slender brows crinkle at her oddly. With one finger, she pushes the book towards Kihira. "I don't want to deal with that guy. You and me, we both know which one he would less likely scoff at."

Now it was Kihira's turn to arch her eyebrows. "What do you mean? He's equally a dick to everyone."

"Yeah, but maybe if you twirl your brown locks at him a little seductively, he might spare you."

Even after a long tiring day of staring at nothing but a blackboard, Kihira manages to let out a soft laugh. "Didn't that sound flattering, but I highly doubt he would be weakened by such a technique."

"Aww come on, gingers can't be sexy anyways. Besides, if it does work, I would have a strategy to win any altercations against him in the future, if any sprouts."

"I thought you said gingers can't be sexy."

Ameyuri smirks. "I never said I was going to use me against him."

Kihira stares at her for a while, before shaking her head, humoured. "You watch too much movies."

"Because they are educational." Ameyuri retorted, clenching her bag strap. "Come on, let's go."

Smiling at the floor, Kihira follows her friend out of the classroom, and onto the pavement towards the counselling office. Facing Tsukishima was currently an issue hurled to the back of her mind, but little did she know that she would have to face him earlier than expected later that afternoon.

* * *

><p>Pacing back into the neighbourhood, Kihira wipes the endless beads of perspiration from her forehead, and curses herself for not bringing her hair tie. Her hair was beginning to stick to her neck like wet dishes when stacked together - a sensation she hated with fury. For the umpteenth time, she gathers her hair in her clutches and palms it over her right shoulder, even though it will only take a few dozen steps for them to go free and frizzy again. Never has she ever despise the hot weather this much.<p>

The sun wasn't the only thing that was toying with her nerves - just her luck, there was no one around at this time in the afternoon. She could've taken the long route home, which was past the shophouses and back alleys, but one, it was longer and two, back alleys, although most of the time there will be police patrolling in that area. The shorter route, the one she's on, requires her to walk through a cycling park usually deserted around this time of the day too, but she doubts anyone would hand around there. Some residents have reported seeing snakes in the park during hot hours, and there was a case of a man being bitten by one. Herself never having a fear of snakes, she could just stay clear off the grass and walk on the cemented pavement. Sometimes she laughs to herself on how stupid that man was.

But that didn't mean absolutely _no one_ would be in the park. Now if only she waited until evening, then she wouldn't need to look over her shoulders every few seconds.

Taking her first step into said park, she makes sure she has her two feet moving in the middle of the walkway and look behind her, before walking briskly. Just for safety measures, she keeps her eyes on the grass around her. Although wild snakes out here were most likely harmless, she wasn't going to take chances.

The park wasn't big, so it didn't take her long to reach half the journey. Shoes kicking against the gravels and rocks, Kihira keeps her senses high on alert. This was what she does every day, to and fro school, and she had expected herself to go mad with this kind of anxious routine after two months, but she was still here, still sane, the reason being she hasn't encountered any rainy days without an umbrella, hungry snakes or creepy men, and those would most likely not happen for the rest of the year.

But when her ears catch the sound of another footstep behind her, her breastbone swelled with anxiety.

Whipping her head back, a bald man in his mid-thirties, was walking a few dozen feet behind her. She turns back around and started considering the options. He could just be an ordinary guy walking home and meant no harm, but then again it didn't make sense for a man, probably with a driver's license, to take up the option of walking. Kihira has been to this park many times, and she's never seen this man around before.

She turns around to check on his distance, and this time he was at half the distance from her than before. This couldn't be a coincidence. If the man is innocent, considering it was only a girl and him in the park, he should be walking slower to alleviate any suspicions on him, not faster.

Her intuition tells her to run, so she does.

"Oi!" The man calls out with a gruff voice from behind her, he himself picking up the pace. "Where are you going?"

Kihira could only think of propelling in full speed, but her bag pack is preventing her from doing so. At this rate he will catch up to her before she can reach home, so she is clearly at a disadvantage here. Heart palpitating in fear, she struggles to hold any inept thoughts back but she was failing. _Shit I'm so dead. Shit shit shit._

His footsteps were getting clearer and louder, an indication he has no intention of not harming her. She panics. She was going to die. There was no way she was going to allow this man to rape her of her virginity forcefully. She will kill herself before that can happen.

With one last breath, she shrugs herself off her backpack and swing it _hard_ at his head when he was directly behind her. The man loses his footing and stumbles. Taking this precious second, Kihira throws her bag at him and takes off again. By any chance he could also just be a robber, and she can only pray that he is one.

But he isn't. He picks himself up and runs after her shortly after she does, and it didn't take him long to grab a hold of her forearm. She tries to free her arm from his grasp but not no avail, and attempts to stand her ground as he pulls her into the gazebo.

For the first time in her life, she screams.

The man aims a slap at her, but she dodges it and kicks him in the shin, but it wasn't enough to fend him off. He covers her mouth with his one hand and slams her against the pillar. She was quick enough to jerk her head forward to ensure it didn't hit the concrete, but wasn't quick enough to rip her hands from his as he pins them against the wall. This is when she really panicked. She was never adept at fighting.

He grins smugly at her, angering her further. She tries to bite his hand over her mouth, but he made sure that his centre palm wouldn't be touching her lips close enough for her to do it. "Where were you going?"

She snarls at him, still attempting to kick him. "Fuck you."

Although her voice is muffled, he seems to be able to make out her words, his face turns dangerously dark. "I'll make sure you pay for that, bitch."

Kihira starts to squirm and kick, but the man is too strong for her. Her mind begins to race with thoughts and regrets. Regret for not listening to her mother about asking Tsukishima. Regret for not waiting until a safer hour to walk home. Regret for not running a little faster. Regret for not keeping her fitness in check. Regret for not bringing her pocket knife. Now she was left with the consequences.

But it's never the victim's fault, isn't it?

"Ow!" The man suddenly cries, removing his gaze from her and to someone behind him. He or she has blonde hair. "What the fuck do you want?"

Seizing the chance as his grip on her loosens, she manages to twist her hand upwards so that her palm was facing his, and stab his hand with her nails. He cries again. He looks back at her, but was a little too late as she pushes him, creating a distance between them and aims one kick at his manhood.

"Ow! Fuck you, bitch!" The man hoots, catching her hand before she tried to run off, but was pulled away from her by whoever distracted him from her.

The man fell backwards, however, did not lose his balance completely. Before he could recover, Kihira instinctively kicks his centre, causing him to lose his equilibrium and falls backwards, head smacking against the concrete with a deafening 'thud'.

First she feels herself stiffen. Two seconds pass. Five seconds pass. He doesn't move.

"Are you okay?" A husky voice asks beside her. She doesn't take her eyes off the comatose body on the ground, but she knows who the voice belongs to.

"Hey." He tries again, louder and heavy with concern this time.

"Is he dead?" She merely asks, almost berating herself for showing the man sympathy. She abhorred rapists, and swore to never let them have their way if she ever crosses paths with one, even if she had to kill them. She would've been glad to tear their heads off their bodies and hang their bloody guts on staves if she had the ability to, be it granted permission or not. She never wanted anything more than to drill holes into their bodies, chainsaw their limbs and their members off then gouge their eyeballs out with her bare hands. Those were the only times she could remember being so violent and psychopathic.

But when her eyes landed on the limp, unmoving body of a man, all that killing intent was washed away.

She presses the heel of her hands against her eyeballs, and takes long breaths. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, and she needs to calm herself down before she whites out in the middle of a park. Tsukishima retrieves his phone from his pocket. "I'm calling the police."

Slowly, she sinks to the floor and wraps her arms around her knees. A cold wave overwhelms her, and she starts to tremble against her will. Tsukishima stands over her and looks down. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just...shocked." Her voice comes out dry and lifeless. She just needs to tame her heartbeat. She looks up at him and catches a ghost of a worry in his eyes. "I'm okay. What do we do now?"

"Wait for the police to arrive." He replies, glancing at the man.

"Tsukishima?"

"What?"

She never thought she would ever say this. "Can I walk with you guys next time?"

Few seconds of silence follows after. She almost says 'never mind' when he finally utters his respond.

"Anything."

* * *

><p><strong>Just to clarify, no, I've never had an experience of rape or any kind of sexual assault - I hope none of you have either, otherwise this chapter must've been a ride to the Haunted Circus for you, and I sincerely apologize if that's the case.<strong>

**And I also forgot to mention that Yachi Hitoka is a canon character that appears in the manga - for those of you who only watch the anime.**

**Credits to Fallaby Z for inspiring one of the scenes in this chapter.**

**I appreciate your feedbacks!**


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